Day 71

mmmm loving the salads!

Thoughts: I did some more research on eating raw. It is facinating that we are the only animals on the planet who apply heat to our food! And I was thinking like who was the very first person to go oh here's some fire, and here's food, lets put them together and see what happens! And then my friend Leila said "Maybe there was a bush fire and then someone ate some cooked meat and was like mmm this is good!" Haha! So after reading that cooked foods is dead organic matter I have been thinking of going raw and sticking it out for a week.

So scientific evidence shows that raw vegan diets decrease toxic products in the colon (From: J Nutr 1992 Apr;122(4):924-30). Shifting from a conventional diet to an uncooked vegan diet reversibly alters fecal hydrolytic activities in humans, according to researchers, Ling WH, and Hanninen O, of the Department of Physiology, University of Kuopio, Finland. Results suggest a raw food uncooked extreme vegan diet causes a decrease in bacterial enzymes and certain toxic products that have been implicated in colon cancer risk.

Researchers have also found that a diet rich in raw vegetables lowers your risk of breast cancer, and eating lots of fruit reduces your risk for colon cancer, according to a study published in the May 1998 issue of the journal Epidemiology. Well do'h thats obvious!!!! Including fresh fruit as part of your daily diet has been associated with fewer deaths from heart attacks and related problems, by as much as 24%, according to a study published in the September 1996 issue of the British Medical Journal.

Excessive Heat Denatures Nutrients

Burn your finger and skin tissue dies. Overly apply heat to food and nutrients are progressively destroyed. Fresh food prior to wilting or rotting sustains life to a high degree of wellness. Harvested food from field and orchard provides raw materials to replenish your cells and tissues. Overly cooking food destroys live plant and animal tissue whose nutrients no longer bear any relationship to your living body. A diet containing an abundance of raw, unfired food maximizes well being.

The chemical changes that take place to individual nutrients, as excessive heat is applied will now be examined. It is well understood and recognized in scientific literature that heat breaks down vitamins, amino acids and produces undesirable cross-linkages in proteins, particularly in meat. When food is cooked above 117 degrees F for three minutes or longer, the following deleterious changes begin, and progressively cause increased nutritional damage as higher temperatures are applied over prolonged periods of time:  proteins coagulate,  high temperatures denature protein molecular structure, leading to deficiency of some essential amino acids,  carbohydrates caramelize,  overly heated fats generate numerous carcinogens including acrolein, nitrosamines, hydrocarbons, and benzopyrene (one of the most potent cancer-causing agents known),  natural fibers break down, cellulose is completely changed from its natural condition: it loses its ability to sweep the alimentary canal clean,  30% to 50% of vitamins and minerals are destroyed,  100% of enzymes are damaged,  the body’s enzyme potential is depleted which drains energy needed to maintain and repair tissue and organ systems, thereby shortening our life span,  pesticides are restructured into even more toxic compounds,  valuable oxygen is lost,  free radicals are produced,  cooked food pathogens enervate the immune system,  heat degenerates nucleic acids and chlorophyll,  cooking causes inorganic mineral elements to enter the blood and circulate through the system, which settle in the arteries and veins, causing arteries to lose their pliability,  the body prematurely ages as this inorganic matter is deposited in various joints or accumulates within internal organs, including the heart valves.

As temperature rises, each of these damaging events reduces the availability of individual nutrients. Modern food processing not only strips away natural anti-cancer agents, but searing heat forms potent cancer-producing chemicals in the process. Alien food substances are created that the body cannot metabolize.

For example, according to research performed by cancerologist Dr. Bruce Ames, professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at University of California, Berkeley various groups of chemicals from cooked food causes tumors:  Nitrosamines are created from fish, poultry or meat cooked in gas ovens and barbecues, as nitrogen oxides within gas flames interact with fat residues;  Hetrocyclic amines form from heating proteins and amino acids;  Polycyclic hydrocarbons are created by charring meat;  Mucoid plaque, a thick tar-like substance builds up in the intestines on a diet of cooked foods. Mucoid plaque is caused by uneliminated, partically digested, putrefying cooked fatty and starch foods eaten in association with protein flesh foods;  Lipofuscin is another toxin: an accumulation of waste materials throughout the body and within cells of the skin, manifesting as “age-spots”; in the liver as “liver-spots”; and in the nervous system including the brain, possibly contributing to ossification of gray matter and senility.

http://www.living-foods.com/articles/rawfreshproduce.html

Challenges: Should I go raw for a week? hmmmmm I do love my cooked dead organic matter! Heheeee

Triumphs: I no longer think "Oh I can't eat that, that is not on the Earth Diet" because my diet now is so easy on the Earth Diet. I am craving fruits and vegetables and salads, something that I thought would never be possible. I don't even think about eating lollies and chocolates or anything processed, coloured, with additives. It's not even in my space and I love that!!! Wooo wooo!

What I Ate Today:

Breakfast: juice beetroot, carrot, celery, pineapple, ginger. a chocolate ball. blueberries. macadamia nuts.

Lunch: Steph made eggplant with zuchinni with onion garlic and tomatoe with herbs thyme and basil and coriander. mmmm mmmm!

Dinner: advocado with brocoli and cauli flower and garlic. I love eating avocado with everything! Hehe

Check out the organic avo to the regular. The organic avo is almost the same size as the regular avo seed! what are they feeding these avos? hehe super avos!!!

Dessert: 2 passion fruit

Snacks: no snacks

Cost: spent $36 at the organic store $14 on chicken. The organic chicken is sooo yummy! It has a different texture than the regular chicken. And it's totally worth the price because I am eating chicken without anti-biotics and hormones!

Exercise: Steph and I went for a run on the beach and then Steph dropped the car key so we went for another run to find it, we didn't find it, so we walked a bit into surfers and hitch hiked back to our house to get another key and go back to the car. Wow what a cool adventure for the start of the day! We went for a hip hop class at night time. and then 20 minutes ab work. 10 minutes dancing.

294 Days To Go!!!