Frequently Asked Questions About Raw and 811rv

Okay to Eat or Take This?

Should my fruits and vegetables always be organic?

Organic produce is always to be preferred, but life is full of compromises and choices. It may be better to eat non-organic raw vegetables than to eat cooked or steamed organic vegetables, but it is a difficult choice. The goal of this site is to define the ideal, the target, while encouraging and assisting the reader in vectoring towards those goals. It is better to eat plenty of non-organic fruits and meet your daily caloric requirement than to under eat on insufficient quantities organic fruit and grow weak from lack of adequate nutrition.There are usually more vitamins and minerals in organic produce. It is also true that organic produce has little or no pesticide residue, while non-organic often does; nevertheless, the amounts involved are not usually critical to health, and it is far more consequential to avoid the pathogenic effects from cooked food. To worry about pesticides while eating cooked food is like stepping in front of a moving train to avoid the sting of a bee.

Can I keep drinking coffee on the raw diet?

The beans in coffee are cooked, making them non-raw. The fatal dose of caffeine is 10 grams, the amount in approximately 70 cups of coffee. Many people take one tenth of the lethal dose every day. Moreover, caffeine decreases the amount of pepsin in your body, pepsin that is needed for protein digestion. Caffeine is also known to deplete the body of water, calcium, potassium, manganese, and the vitamin B complex. It is ironic that many coffee drinkers on the Standard American Diet (SAD) criticize the raw diet because they believe they would not receive enough protein every day, while their daily intake of coffee blocks the absorption of the very protein they claim they need.

What about spices like garlic, onion, curry, cumin, cayenne, chile powder, and oregano?

We have a saying in the raw community about this: "If you can't make a meal of it, it is suspect at best." So, can you eat a bowl of cumin? Of course not. These spices are referred to as "excito-toxins," in that they stimulate and excite our taste buds, but deliver no nutritional benefit. In most cases they act as an irritant and cause the body to produce mucous to protect itself from them. In other cases, they disguise the bland or noxious taste of cooked foods to seduce us into consuming foods that would not attract us on their own. Cooked pasta and rice without seasonings, are bland and virtually inedible. Finally, like salt, the spices skew our taste buds away from appreciating the natural taste of fruits and vegetables on their own. The same holds true for condiments such as mustard, ketchup, and mayonnaise.

Are dehydrated foods OK to eat?

Dehydrated food is not a whole food; it has had its water taken out. As such, it could never be as good as the whole, fresh food, even if the water is replaced. Some of the nutrients inevitably get damaged in the process of dehydration and rehydration. This becomes a personal decision, but dried foods should always be considered at least a second choice behind fresh, whole, organic, ripe fruits and vegetables. Current research shows that B12 changes to an analog and unusable form where it is found in dehydrated foods.

Are frozen fruit/veggies OK to eat?

Some damage to living foods must occur when they are frozen. Cell walls expand, and often burst when frozen, diminishing vitality. However, some foods, like nuts and seeds are designed to survive through cold winters, so these foods are definitely okay to freeze. As for fruits and vegetables, freezing should be used sparingly but not necessarily totally eliminated, as it is often the best way to preserve foods with minimal damage. No known toxins are formed from freezing, as opposed to other forms of preservation. Generally, the lower the water content and the higher the fat content of a whole, fresh food, the better it will take to freezing. At the same time, frozen and ice-cold foods kill the bacteria in the gut that are responsible for the production of vitamin B-12.

Can I use vinegar in my salad dressing?

Vinegar is diluted acetic acid, commonly known to be a poison in its pure form. Acetic acid stimulates the thyroid gland to pull phosphorous from the adrenal glands to negate the effects of acetic acid in the system. Depleted phosphorous results in impaired function of the adrenal glands and thus the entire endocrine system. The outcome of all this can include body odor, pains in the heart, rapid pulse, increased mucous production, and headaches. Repetitive use will also result in hardening of the liver.

Are refined oils, like olive, canola, sunflower, safflower, coconut, etc., OK to use in dressing?

Because they are refined from their original state, oils are no longer safe to ingest into the body. In their concentrated forms, they are pure fat and large amounts of that fat will be directly absorbed into the bloodstream, adversely affecting the blood viscosity (thickness) and the blood chemistry. However, eating some fresh olives, coconut flesh, or sunflower seeds, in moderation, is not bad for you. These whole foods assuredly contain plenty of fat but it is in a form that is combined with all the essential nutrients designed by nature to accompany that fat.

Is eating sea salt all right?

Extracted sodium chloride, in any form other than the small amounts naturally occurring in whole plant foods, is an irritant and is toxic to the body. It causes a decay of the sense of taste, retards digestion/excretion, and impairs the critical cellular potassium/sodium ratio upsetting our natural water balance. Drinking sea water causes dehydration and results in death in only a few days due to the salt content; extracting the salt from the water and ingesting it leads in the same direction. "You would not drink ocean water, as the salt in it is vile, caustic, irritating and in quantity, deadly, even though it is diluted by a lot of water.

Why shouldn't I eat all the avocados, nuts, and seeds I want?

Avocados, nuts and seeds are extremely high in fat content. When it comes to fat, it doesn?t matter so much its origin; fat is fat. Fat goes from the lymph system directly into the blood. Too much fat will thicken the blood, causing the red blood cells to clump together so they cannot deliver oxygen to the cells. Excess fat also blocks the action of insulin in bringing sugars to the cells, which leads to diabetes. It is better to eat small amounts of avocados, nuts and seeds, and not to eat them daily. There is more than adequate fat for the body from fruits, vegetables and leafy greens.

Should I continue taking medicine prescribed by my doctor if I adopt the raw food lifestyle?

The medical profession and its supporting industry, the patent medicine makers, operate from the theory that there are 400 or so separate illnesses whose symptoms can be treated or suppressed by ingesting synthetic chemical compounds. Our approach is entirely different. Other than a few genetically inherited abnormalities usually arising from generations of poor dietary and lifestyle choices, there is only one illness: toxemia, an uncleanness of the blood and tissues, caused primarily by poor diet and lifestyle. This toxemia, and its concomitant enervation, gets progressively worse over the years, leading to all manner of health problems. In order to "cure" a disease condition, such as diabetes, cancer, or cardiovascular disease, you must eliminate the underlying toxemia of which the "disease" is only a manifestation. With a raw diet, you no longer overload the body daily with toxic residue. The body will begin to clean the blood, tissue and organs of their toxicity, and the medical condition for which you are taking the pharmaceutical medicine will fade away, ultimately removing the need to continue taking the medicine.