Many people ask why one “should” eat more raw, and fermented foods.
Dr. Edward Howell who is one of America’s pioneering bio-chemists and nutrition researchers, wrote a valuable book called, Enzyme Nutrition. This book shows multiple animal studies where animals fed diets that are enzyme deficient suffer pancreas enlargement. They found that large amounts of pancreatic enzymes are used in digesting foods that are void of natural enzymes. The result of this usage of pancreatic digestive enzymes is a direct decrease in the supply of crucial metabolic enzymes and sub-optimal health.
Digestive organs such as the pancreas and liver produce most of the body’s digestive enzymes. Enzymes also are contained in uncooked foods such as fresh fruit and vegetables, raw sprouted grains, seeds and nuts, unpasteurized dairy products, and from enzyme supplements.
Eating food in its natural, unprocessed state is vital to the maintenance of integral health internally and externally. In our modern, western world I find that a lack of raw, unprocessed foods and this is directly responsible for much degenerative disease. Cooking food at a temperature over 118 degrees destroys enzymes that are essential for longevity and vibrant health. Cooking is common in everyone’s lives, but the emphasis here is the why of eating more raw foods. A cooked diet is essentially an “enzymeless” diet. By our 40s we become metabolically depleted of enzymes which are essential for every biomechanical process.
If foods are eaten uncooked, fewer of the body’s digestive enzymes are required to perform the digestive function. The body thereby adapts to the plentiful, external supply by secreting fewer of its own enzymes, preserving these enzymes to assist in vital cellular metabolic functions.
What can you choose today to incorporate more raw foods in your life?