Dehydrating temp. changed?

beanybeegan

I have been dehydrating at 106. Now I see many on Gone Raw are dehydrating at 118. Has new knowledge come up and I missed it? The extra heat would really help cut the time.

bitt

There seems to be a controversy on it. I’m going with 105 for now.

amysue

Just to further complicate things, Dr. Gabriel Cousens recommends dehydrating at 145 for the first hour or 2 and then turning it down since there’s so much water in food when you first put it in, it doesn’t heat up right away, so you end up spending less time dehydrating which he says makes it safer as there’s less time for bacteria to grow. It’s in his book Rainbow Green Live Food Cuisine. Confused yet?

kandace

I was taught with 118, but have read Cousens’ instructions. I believe this change came about after research done by the Excalibur company wanting to help raw foodists. Here is some of what they say:

Something that has caused us a lot of concern, is the fact that we have heard so many conflicting opinions as to the temperature at which enzymes are destroyed. Twenty years ago Ann Wigmore spoke to our Founder Roger Orton personally and said that the food temperature had to go above 120ºF for a period of time before the enzymes were destroyed. Again in our discussions with Viktoras he said the same thing.

Ann tested different dehydrators, and found that Excalibur was the best for living foods. She found that the best technique for saving enzymes was to set Excalibur on a higher food temperature setting in the beginning and then turn it down after a few hours. However because most people may not know when to turn it down, and by leaving it on the higher setting may kill the enzymes she said to set your Excalibur on 105ºF setting throughout the entire cycle. That way the food temp will never go above 120ºF even after it is dry.

We believe this is why many have come to believe that 105ºF air temperature is the temperature at which the enzymes are destroyed, which is entirely inaccurate. We have also heard many people quote Dr. Edward Howell in his book Enzyme Nutrition that prolonged temperatures over 118ºF will destroy enzymes. We also read in his book where he says that the enzyme amylase can still convert starch to sugar at air temperatures up to 160ºF but will wear out after a half an hour. We have also read where he says that the optimum temperatures for enzymes are 45ºF to 140ºF.

http://www.excaliburdehydrator.com/enzymes_and_…

beanybeegan

Thanks for all the information. Food for thought. I have two Excalibur’s, a 5 tray and my DH just bought me a 9 tray.Guess I should have read their information when I got them. Thankfully they both have timers. The higher temp for wet foods will really help.I can see the idea behind it.