Enzymes are majorly important to the digestion of our food. And in that process, our ability to absorb the needed nutrition to give us fuel for living.
That brings us to raw food. Now, I’m not talking about meat. I’ll take mine cooked, thank you. But baked, poached or broiled is much better than fried. Frying presents problems I’ll get into in another post. Right now we’re talking about raw vegetables, fruit and nuts.
These foods, when consumed raw, provide us with awesome enzymes that help us digest and utilize our food. You see, the enzymes are destroyed in the cooking process—the more it’s cooked, the more enzymes are destroyed. And I realize that cooked food is good, and most of what we eat is cooked—especially road food. But grab that banana or some raw nuts when you can.
Actually, at home, you can find plenty of raw food. We snack daily on a mixture of raw broccoli, carrots and cauliflower—dipped in hummus. And I often just have raw veggies with hummus in place of a cooked vegetable. And the dip doesn’t have to be hummus, if you don’t like it. I’ve enjoyed raw veggies with ranch dressing, too. Or you can try anything else you might like.
We also have just a salad for supper, usually. With plenty of leafy green leaf and/or romain lettuce, raw spinach leaves, bean sprouts, avocado, grape or cherry tomatoes, and sometimes green pepper or green onion.
Of course, fruit is easy to find raw. Bananas, apples, oranges, plums, nectarines and pears make a great snack. Oh, and grapes! You just want them fresh, not canned or cooked in any way.
And then, my personal favorite—nuts. Did you know one Brazil nut can provide you with a daily requirement of selenium? Selenium is one nutrient that helps protect us from cancer, so you want to make sure you get enough!
I don’t eat peanuts because they don’t agree with me, but most peanuts you find are roasted, and occasionally boiled. At certain times of the year, when you find boiled peanuts, you can find raw ones, but they aren’t the best tasting when raw. So other nuts are a better idea—especially almonds. Yum! But there are also pecans, Brazil nuts, filberts and the heart- health champion, walnuts.
And we don’t want to forget seeds. Sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds are very good for us. There again, raw is best.
Always, if possible, I buy organic. It’s slightly more expensive, but it’s well worth it. Also, I always wash vegetables and fruits in a mixture of filtered water and grapefruit seed extract, to kill any germs and any residual pesticides—even the organic stuff. You don’t know who picked that vegetable, and how clean they were when handling it!
Speaking of organic, did you know that certain vegetables and fruits absorb pesticides? So no matter how well it’s washed, you ingest pesticide anyway. I don’t have the full list handy, but I know tomatoes are on that list. I won’t buy tomatoes if I can’t find organic ones.
So do yourself a favor and consume something raw! And organic!
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