Chapter 1-Back to Raw Natural Food Choices
How Your Body Actually Works and Its Natural Enzymes
When you are suffering from health conditions such as high blood pressure, your doctor will offer you prescription medication, a sort of band aid solution to the problem. They often don't take time to look into what the underlying cause may be of your high blood pressure. It may end up being fat clogged in your arteries that are causing this problem. If they find that you are deficient in vitamins, they may suggest taking a multitude of different supplements to make up for this.
You could instead take the natural approach and get them right from the source, and begin eating raw foods, these will contain the nutrients that you need to stay healthy. Often we turn to the artificial supplements rather than reaching for raw fruits and vegetables in the fast-paced lives that we lead.
In this book I would like to guide you towards taking a different road to achieve a healthier and happier life that you may be searching for. If you take the all-natural approach it will confront all of your underlying health issues to get you back on the road to good health. Taking this road means that you will not have to rely on chemicals or supplements that give you no assurance of working for you in the first place. Committing to a raw organic food diet that is filled with antioxidants, minerals, and vitamins will enhance your immunity, vitality, and energy in a natural way!
Just by you reading this book you are going to be able to understand what the raw food diet will offer you and how it is the best and healthiest road to take towards good health and happiness.
Our digestion process begins with the first bite we take of food. Digestive enzymes, called amylases, are released when we eat and this begins the process of breaking down the carbohydrates that we consume. The food then travels to the first half of our stomach where the carbohydrates are completely broken down. Once this process is completed it moves to the second half of our stomach where pepsin (enzyme that breaks down proteins into amino acids) and hydrochloric acid are excreted. After this it then moves into the small intestine. The majority of the fat that you have eaten will be digested.
Raw foods are basically any plant food that has not been heated over 118 degrees so that the enzymes within it are not destroyed. One of the big reasons that people choose to eat a raw food diet is to gain the enzymes from the raw food. In order for our body to convert food into energy it must be first broken down by digestive enzymes. Your body on its own is only able to produce so many of these enzymes. Once your body hits puberty it produces 10% to 13% less enzymes every decade. When using calorie restriction and fasting these can greatly influence these numbers in a positive way.
The salivary glands produce enzymes when you are chewing your food. Enzymes are made up of amino acids just like proteins, are protein catalysts, and are biologically active, basically meaning that they contain energy. When we take an enzyme orally it expends all of its energy clearing the blood of undigested food until all of it has been used up. There are two different types of enzymes that are produced by the body, digestive and metabolic. The metabolic enzymes that your body produces are used for biochemical reactions, detoxification, and metabolic energy within the cells of your body. An example of this would be the conversion of alphalinoleic acid (ALA) omega-3 fatty acids and omega-6 linoleic acid (LA) to EPA and then DHA which comprises over 20% of the dry weight of the human brain. This process is done by metabolic enzymes produced by your body and shows the importance of eating a diet rich in enzymes and maintaining as close to a one-to-one balance of omega-3 fatty acids and omega-6 fatty acids as you possibly can.
Your body uses about 70% of its energy being used in the digestion process, maintaining alkalinity of the blood and acidity of the stomach, and the continual production of digestive enzymes.
The remaining systems of your body including the respiratory, reproductive, cardiovascular, nervous, muscular, and immune system use the remaining 30%. It is important to understand this because it proves how excessive eating devoid of enzymes drains your energy and leaves your body more susceptible to invading fungus, bacteria, parasites, and viruses which lead to disease.
There are many different diets and supplements, but the best choice is one that offers a full spectrum enzyme blend designed to break down fats, proteins and carbohydrates.
It was once thought that digestive enzymes were destroyed by the acidity of the stomach, but due to research findings it has been discovered that they simply become inactive in acid and become active again in a more suitable pH. Our bodies will only produce enough enzymes for the food that is consumed. When people are overweight this is a sign that they are eating more food than their body can handle. This leaves undigested carbs, proteins, and fats in the blood leaving food for unwanted invaders.
When you take in digestive enzymes either through raw food or supplements they will help break down food so that your body doesn't have to manufacture them, which allows you to have more energy which in turn will help you live a longer healthier life.
When you cook your food it produces a toxic compound called acrylamide which has been known to cause cancer. It has been discovered through research that our bodies can only produce so many enzymes in a lifetime, this is another important reason why you should eat as much raw food as you can.
3 Different Ways How Digestive Enzymes Are Produced
There are three ways that digestive enzymes are produced:
Our gut micro-flora or bacterial colonies adjust to our diet. The bacteria in our colon extract 15% of the calories from our food to fuel us. Studies have shown that people that are overweight have less gut bacteria so the best way to replenish them is to eating fermented foods and repopulate your colony by eating fruit.
There are 30 trillion human cells that make up our bodies and 100 trillion bacterial and fungal cells that reside on every square inch of our bodies. Studies have shown that each person has about 2 million different genes for bacteria and 23,000 different genes for your cells, meaning that only 1% of your body is you.