The Raw Transformation

Raw-Transformation-Energizing-Your-Life-With-Living-Foods-by-Wendy-Rudell

Raw Transformation Energizing Your Life With Living Foods by Wendy Rudell

This visually lively gourmet raw food recipe book provides all the information you need for increasing your health and well-being through a raw foods diet. The recipes will motivate anyone who wants to have more energy, vitality, and abundant health without feeling deprived of their former cuisine. In addition, the book introduces readers to the ways that we can transform our physical bodies and our consciousness through a combination of living foods, yoga, meditation, breath work, and much more.  The first third of the book introduces raw cuisine, giving information on nutrition and the benefits of adopting this lifestyle. It connects raw food to other modalities, to enable the whole process of physical, emotional, and spiritual transformation.  The next two thirds of the book features over 300 raw food recipes that are surprisingly diverse and easy to make. These recipes include entrees such as Indian Vegetable Curry and Pad Thai, desserts such as Banana Coconut Cream Pie, and a wide variety of salads, breads, crackers, side dishes, shakes, smoothies, soups, dressings, marinades, dips, and much more. Unlike many natural foods recipe books, this one uses only familiar, easy-to-find ingredients.  The book ends with a list of sources for blenders, juicers, kitchen gadgets, organic and specialty foods, as well as health retreat centers. It also includes a glossary and recommended reading list.

Wendy’s book at Amazon

El Parralito

Hidden at the base of the Sierra De Laguna Mountains in Baja California South is our beautiful 200 year-old ranch on 1000 acres of wilderness desert. The original grapevine, for which Rancho El Parralito was named, still produces a bountiful harvest, along with our gardens and orchards. Thanks to our … Continue reading

Grains, nuts and seeds

February 8, 2012
 
Grains, Nuts and Seeds-Yvonne L. Salcido MHGrowing up on the American diet most of us aren’t aware of the best way to prepare grains, nuts and seeds so our bodies can utilize the nutrients. We grew up thinking white flour bread was beautiful and delicious, nothing could be better, especially home baked bread. Today many have evolved to think whole wheat bread is the best option and who can deny that hot, homemade, whole wheat bread, fresh out of the oven tastes great? But this reminds me how Dr. Christopher taught that you can’t expect to grind wheat to face powder, cook it at high temperatures and think it will rebuild and nourish the body. “Dead food begets death.” Live foods give life! Proper preparation will nourish and rebuild our bodies.

Whole grains that have been processed at high temperatures are extremely toxic. Are there any puffed grains or flat flakes in your whole grain breakfast cereal? These are not only void of nutrients but hard to digest. These highly processed whole grains also affect the blood sugar and destroy the enzyme phytase that aids in the breaking down of phytic acid.
Nature has placed phytic acid in the bran of whole grains and also enzyme inhibitors to protect grains for long time storage. If the grains are not pre-soaked or fermented before consumption the phytic acid combines with other minerals such as calcium, magnesium, iron, copper, and zinc and inhibits their assimilation in the body, which can lead to mineral deficiencies and eventual bone loss.
Sprouting, overnight soaking and fermenting the grains helps to neutralize nature’s protection of phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors. This in essence starts the digestive process giving us the ability to properly break down the grains, nuts, and seeds making it possible for our bodies to receive the minerals and nutrition within them. Soaking seeds in warm water also promotes growth of the beneficial enzymes which increase vitamin and mineral content, favorably B vitamins.
Gluten is a protein in grains that is hard to digest. It taxes the digestive system. Those grains containing gluten; barley, oats, rye, and wheat should especially be sprouted, soaked, or fermented. Currently numerous people have allergies to grains, nuts, and seeds but with the proper preparation of these foods many have tolerated them just fine.
Throughout history previous cultures sprouted, soaked, and fermented grains, nuts and seeds. An example of this is in the Old Testament when “pulse” was eaten by Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. This gave them amazing health benefits.
Some cultural examples of historic grain preparation include: Mexican pozol (corn cakes) which are fermented for a few days and can be for up to two weeks using banana leaves. When making injera (bread) Ethiopians fermented teff (grain) for several days. Oriental and Latin American countries fermented rice before using. In India idili (rice and lentils) fermented for two days or longer. African corn was soaked overnight before adding it to dishes. They also used millet or corn to make a sour porridge. In Europe, grains were soaked overnight or longer before serving as cereal or porridge and their bread was made from sourdough starters. American pioneers also made sourdough breads and the Welsh soured a porridge made from oats.
There are many books available on sprouting for the different grains, nuts and seeds. It is best to soak grains and the larger nuts and seeds for at least 24 hours or more. To ferment them use lemon juice or a good apple cider vinegar from the health food store that contains the friendly flora or “mother”. A little in the soaking water will suffice. (see recipe below)
I have witnessed in my own health and others how these simple changes in our food preparation will improve your health. Increased energy and vitality will be yours!
 
Yvonne Lunt Salcido is a Student Advisor for and a Master Herbalist Graduate of the School of Natural Healing. She is a current student at Utah Valley University majoring in Health and Wellness Education.
 

Raw Food–One of Your Keys to Outstanding Health

A kitchen is nothing else than a chemical laboratory producing millions of completely new chemical substances that basically never existed in the wild and if, then very occasionally by accident. Cooking will randomly produce millions of different sugar and protein combinations commonly called Maillard molecules.

Throughout the biggest part of our evolutionary history, the one before processing, human beings have never ingested the amount of Maillard molecules we ingest today. The recent introduction of dairy products and grains has equally brought new chemical substances such as new proteins into the dietary spectrum of humans within a very short period of time.

Key Points Regarding the Effects of Cooking on Food and Health

The food’s life force is greatly depleted or destroyed when it is cooked. The bioelectrical energy field is altered and greatly depleted, as is graphically demonstrated with kirlian photography. Live and bioactive raw food is severely diminished.

The biochemical structure and nutrient makeup of the food is altered from its original state. Molecules in the food are deranged, degraded, and broken down. The food is degenerated in many ways. Fiber in plant foods is broken down into a soft, passive substance that loses its broom-like and magnetic cleansing quality in the intestines.

Nutrients, like vitamins, minerals, and amino acids are depleted, destroyed, and altered. The degree of depletion, destruction, and alteration is simply a matter of temperature, cooking method, and time.

Up to 50% of the protein is coagulated. Much of this is rendered unusable. High temperatures also create cross-links in protein. Cross-linked proteins are implicated in many problems in the body, as well as being a factor in the acceleration of the aging process.

The interrelationship of nutrients is altered from its natural synergistic makeup. For example, with meat, relatively more vitamin B-6 than methionine is destroyed, which fosters atherogenic free radical-initiating homocysteine accumulation that is a factor in heart problems.

The water content of the food is decreased. The natural structure of the water is also changed to something far less than optimal.

Toxic substances and cooked “byproducts” are created. The higher the cooking temperature, the more toxins that are created. Frying and grilling are especially toxin-generating. Various carcinogenic and mutagenic substances and many free radicals are generated in cooked fats and proteins in particular.

Heat causes the molecules involved to collide, and repeated collision causes divalent bonding in order for new molecules, and hence a new substance, to form. They have even been named “new chemical composites”.

Unusable waste material is created, which has a cumulative congesting and clogging effect on your body and is a burden to the natural eliminative processes of your body.

All of the enzymes present in raw foods are destroyed at temperatures as low as 118 degrees Fahrenheit. These enzymes, named “food enzymes” are important for optimum digestion. They naturally aid in digestion and become active as soon as eating commences. Cooking destroys 100% of these enzymes.

Eating enzyme-dead food places a burden on your pancreas and other organs and overworks them, which eventually exhausts these organs. The digestion of cooked food uses valuable metabolic enzymes in order to help digest your food. Digestion of cooked food is much more energetically demanding than the digestion of raw food. In general, raw food is so much more easily digested that it passes through the digestive tract in a half to a third of the time it takes for cooked food.

After eating a cooked meal, there is a rush of white blood cells towards the digestive tract, leaving the rest of the body less protected by the immune system. From the point of view of the immune system the body is being invaded by a foreign (toxic) substance when cooked food is eaten.

Putrefactive bacteria, particularly from cooked meat, dominate the natural population of beneficial intestinal flora resulting in dysfunction in your intestine, allowing the absorption of toxins from the bowel. This phenomenon is variously called dysbiosis, or intestinal toxemia.

A buildup of mucoid plaque is created in the intestines. Mucoid plaque is a thick tar-like substance that is the long-term result of undigested, uneliminated cooked food putrefying in the intestines. Cooked starches and fats in particular are a major culprit in constipation and clogging of the intestines.

Cooked foods cause a build-up of toxins and waste material in many parts of the body, including within individual cells. Some of these toxins and wastes are called lipofuscin, which accumulates in the skin and nervous system, including the brain. It can be observed as “liver spots” or “age spots.”

Cooked foods cause malnutrition at the cellular level. Because cooked foods are lower in nutrients, in addition to containing wastes and toxins, individual cells don’t receive enough of the nutrients they need.

Cooked foods cause a tendency towards obesity through overeating. Because the cells don’t get enough nutrients they are so to speak “always hungry” and hence “demand” more food. Cooked food is also less likely to be properly metabolized, which is another factor in excess weight gain.

From time to time the body experiences detoxification crises also called purification or healing crises. This happens when toxins are released through the skin or dumped in your bloodstream for elimination by the liver, kidneys, and other organs. The symptoms may include headaches, fever, nausea, vomiting, colds, bronchitis, sinusitis, pneumonia, and diarrhea.

The immune system, having to handle the massive daily invasions of toxins and toxic by-products, eventually becomes overwhelmed and weakened. A key factor in the aging process.

The wastes, toxins, mutagens, and carcinogens that build up within cells, as well as the daily onslaught of excess free radicals eventually cause some cells to become cancerous – killing an estimated 30% of Americans.

In general, the natural aging process is accelerated by cooked food. People who switch to raw food often become biologically and visibly younger.

After eating a cooked meal there is a general increase in the white blood cells in the blood and a change in the relative proportions of different blood cells occurs. This phenomenon is called “digestive leukocytosis”.

Leukocytosis and Cooked Food

In 1930, research was conducted at the Institute of Clinical Chemistry in Lausanne, Switzerland, under the direction of Dr. Paul Kouchakoff. The effect of food (cooked/processed vs. raw/natural) on the immune system was tested and documented.

Dr. Kouchakoff’s discovery concerned the leukocytes, the white blood cells.

It was found that after a person eats cooked food, his/her blood responds immediately by increasing the number of white blood cells. This is a well-known phenomena called “digestive leukocytosis”, which means that there is a rise in the number of leukocytes, or white blood cells, after eating.

Since digestive leukocytosis was always observed after eating, it was considered to be a normal physiological response to eating. No one knew why the number of white cells would rise after eating, since this appeared to be a stress response, as if the body was reacting to something harmful, such as infection, trauma, or exposure to toxic chemicals.

Back in 1930, Swiss researchers of the institute of Chemical Chemistry studied the influence of food on human blood and made a remarkable discovery. They found that eating unaltered, raw food or food heated at low temperatures did not cause a reaction in the blood. In addition, if a food had been heated beyond a certain temperature (unique to each food), or if the food was processed (refined, added chemicals, etc.), this always caused a rise in the number of white cells in the blood.

The researchers renamed this reaction “pathological leukocytosis”, since the body was reacting to highly altered food. They tested many different kinds of foods and found that if the foods were not overheated or refined, they caused no reaction. The body saw them as “friendly foods”. However, these same foods, if heated at too high a temperature, caused a negative reaction in the blood, a reaction that is found only when the body is invaded by a dangerous pathogen or trauma.

The worst offenders of all, whether heated or not, were processed foods that had been refined (such as white flour or white rice), or homogenized (a process in which the fat in milk is subjected to artificial suspension), or pasteurized (also seen in milk, flash-heated to high temperatures to kill bacteria), or preserved (chemicals added to food to retard spoilage or to enhance taste or texture).

In other words, foods that were changed from their original God-given state. Good examples of these harmful foods are: pasteurized milk, chocolate, margarine, sugar, candy, white flour, and regular salt. The researchers found that if these altered, chemical foods were chewed very thoroughly, the harm to the blood could be lessened. In addition, another amazing finding was that if some of the same food in its raw state was eaten with the cooked counterpart, the pathological reaction in the blood was minimized. However, avoid these unnatural, processed foods; replace them with delicious whole foods for optimal health.

By Wes Petereson at www.towardsfreedom.com

Raw Pumpkin Pie

 

Try a twist on holiday tradition with this delicious and healthy raw pumpkin pie recipe.

Crust:Pumpkim pie
2 cups almonds, soaked and dehydrated 2 hours
1 cup Medjool dates, soaked 1 hour to soften
¼ tsp vanilla
¼ tsp cinnamon
Date soaking water if necessary

To make: Place almonds in food processor and process until mealy. Slowly add in dates, water, vanilla, and cinnamon to form a dough consistency. Pat into a glass pie plate so that crust is at least ¼ inch thick.

 

Filling:
2 cups pumpkin puree
1 – 1 ½ cups dates, soaked 1 hour
¼ cup raisins, soaked 1 hour
½ cup cashews, soaked 4 hours
2 persimmons, peeled*
2 sapotes**
½ – 1 tsp cinnamon
1 – 2 tsp vanilla
¼ tsp cloves
¼ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp cardamom
Raisin or date soaking water
3 Tbs psyllium
Dash of Celtic sea salt

To Make: Put peeled and chopped pumpkin through the Champion juicer with the blank in place. Then run the dates, raisins, and nuts through the Champion juicer, again with the blank attachment. Combine the two then add the mixture to the Vita-Mix, along with the remaining ingredients (except for the psyllium husks). Use just enough soaked raisin water to keep the blades turning. Remove mixture to a larger bowl and stir in psyllium husks. This will help to firm the pie so that it slices neatly. Scoop mixture into the crust and chill 2 hours before serving. Garnish with Macadamia Nut Cream Frosting.

 

Macadamia Nut Cream Frosting
1 ½ cups macadamia nuts, soaked overnight
½ cup fresh orange juice, papaya juice, or coconut water
¼ cup agave syrup or honey
1 tsp almond extract

To Make: Blend all ingredients in the Vita-Mix until smooth and creamy. Top pie and serve chilled.

 

*If you are having trouble finding persimmons, try substituting mango or apple.
** If you are having trouble finding sapotes, try substituting banana or young coconut.

 

All recipes are from Raw Transformation

Wendy Rudell – Raw Food Author & Chef

 

Raw pizzaWendy, a native Canadian and residant of the United States is a world traveler who spends as much  time as she can in Mexico.  For the past 40 years, Wendy has been actively involved in the healing arts and holds degrees and certifications in teaching, naturopathy, biofeedback, breathwork, yoga, massage therapy, colon therapy, and spiritual counseling.  Wendy is also a licensed Quantum Healer and uses a number of integrative approaches to health and healing.  Wendy is a published author of a raw food cuisine “uncookbook” titled The Raw Transformation: Energizing Your Life with Living Foods.

Wendy’s Book, The Raw Transformation, has over 300 raw food recipes and is beautifully illustrated with numerous photographs, information on nutrition, and guidance about how to start a raw food lifestyle

This visually lively gourmet raw food recipe book provides all the information you need for increasing your health and well-being through a raw food diet. The recipes will motivate anyone who wants to have more energy, vitality, and abundant health without feeling deprived of their former cuisine. In addition, the book introduces readers to the ways that we can transform our physical bodies and our consciousness through a combination of living raw food, yoga, meditation, breath work, and much more.

The first third of the book introduces raw food cuisine, giving information on nutrition and the benefits of adopting this lifestyle. It connects raw food to other modalities, to enable the whole process of physical, emotional, and spiritual transformation.

The next two thirds of the book features over 300 raw food recipes that are surprisingly diverse and easy to make. These recipes include entrees such as Indian Vegetable Curry and Pad Thai, desserts such as Banana Coconut Cream Pie, and a wide variety of salads, breads, crackers, side dishes, shakes, smoothies, soups, dressings, marinades, dips, and much more. Unlike many natural foods recipe books, this one uses only familiar, easy-to-find ingredients.

The Raw Food book ends with a list of sources for blenders, juicers, kitchen gadgets, organic and specialty foods, as well as health retreat centers. It also includes a glossary and recommended reading list.

Wendy’s passion concerns how to facilitate transformation on all levels using integrative medical approaches as she holds herself and others as true representations of the Divine Eternal Self, Pure Consciousness with Infinite possibilities.

It is her deep understanding of Spiritual truths and her intuitive insight into healing with raw food, superfoods, herbs, tonics and juices that makes Wendy outstanding in her field.

by Raw Food Live Food.com