What are live foods?
~Treesong~
Live foods are foods that still have the vitality of the plants and soil that produced them. All of the enzymes, minerals, vitamins, nutrients, and life-giving energies of the food are still intact. If you take any unbroken seeds from the ingredients in a live foods dish, they are still viable. Under the proper conditions, they will grow into a new plant. They are alive - and you are consuming them so that you, too, will alive and vital. This is why they're called live foods.
Live foods are also called raw foods. Cooking is one of many forms of processing that destroys the vitality of the food. There may be many isolated nutrients that survive the cooking process, but these are simmering in a stew of carcinogens, mutant proteins, and other toxins. If a food is too hot for you to touch, then how can that heat possibly be a good thing for the living ingredients in that food, or for the living tissues of your digestive tract and body? If a food isn't raw, it contains toxins that weren't there before the cooking process began. If you eat a cooked food, you yourself are cooked.
Some people make subtle distinctions between live and raw foods, but I'm not too concerned about that here. In most cases, I will use the term live foods, because this to me affirms the positive life-giving qualities of the food rather than focusing on what has not been done to them.
Why eat live foods?
There are many reasons for becoming a live foodist. Among the most popular are personal health, the Earth's health, and spiritual consciousness.
Personal Health
Live foods is the healthiest lifestyle on the planet. This should come as no surprise, since it's based on the principle of affirming and embracing life. By increasing the live food content in you diet, you are increasing the amount of nutrition and energy that you are receiving from the world. You are probably also eating less cooked and dead food, thereby reducing the amount of carcinogens, mutagens, and other toxins in you body.
The health benefits of live foods can be explained very simply and concisely. It's common sense; you are what you eat, so eat fresh and vital life rather than cooked and processed death. However, since the majority of people in the world still eat cooked and dead foods, it's important to cover some of the scientific underpinnings of the live foods lifestyle.
A detailed discussion of this topic is beyond the current scope of this site. For the time being, I refer you to a book titled Rainbow Green Live-Foods Cuisine by Gabriel Cousens, M.D. This book is a wonderful resource, with everything from a detailed exploration of the sciences of life and death in nutrition to a collection of recipes and advice on how to create a personalized diet plan for yourself [and even your children].
The Earth's Health
Live foods are clearly healing to the people who eat and share them. But did you know that they can also be very healing to the planet?
If your food choices or financial circumstances leave you eating live foods that are commercially grown produce or shipped halfway around the world, then it may be difficult to see the ecological benefits of such a lifestyle. But even these foods often have a smaller ecological footprint than, say, a Big Mac or a Twinkie.
This is only a beginning. A person who is truly "live," who embraces live foods fully, will maximize the percentage of their food that is organic, that is grown within the same bioregion as the person eating it, and that is grown by farmers engaging in natural or permacultural farming methods. All of these qualities contribute to both the health of the live foodist and the health of the Earth.
Consider this: as many vegetarians know, you can feed 40 times more people with grain than you can with the meat that you get by feeding that grain to livestock. But did you know that you can feed 250% more people than THAT if you switch your acre of land to fruit and vegetable production? [Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine, p. 19-22] This is before we even factor in the ecological benefits of bioregional eating and permacultural farming! No wonder the live foods diet is so healthy for the people who eat it; it's the Earth's way of saying thanks for living lightly and compassionately on the planet.
Spiritual Consciousness
Increasing the percentage of live foods in your diet is sure to guarantee new and exciting developments in your spiritual consciousness. There are at least two reasons for this. First of all, cooked and deadened foods fill your body with toxins and deplete your energy levels, thereby inhibiting your physical, emotion, and mental health. This in turn has an impact on your spiritual health, since much of your consciousness becomes devoted to experiencing and healing illness. Second, and most importantly, a true live foodist sees their path as more than a diet. It is a lifestyle - a conscious choice to affirm life with every aspect of one's being, including but not limited to diet.
When I was a "cookie" [cooked foodist], I was very low-energy, depressed, frequently ill, and down on life in general. The world seemed like a horrible place to me, and at times I simply wanted to end my own journey here. Within a couple of months of switching to 100% live foods, my energy levels had increased significantly, my illnesses began to disappear, andI was once again happy to be alive. Oddly enough, I was learning more and more about the terrible problems in the world, but feeling less and less anxious about them. Why? Because I felt the joy of life in my very body, in my emotions, in my mind, in my heart, and in my spirit. I felt more and more empowered to work in the world in the service of life and love.
I encourage you to try any increase in the live foods in you diet and see what results they bring. Some say that it takes about 80% live foods and above to experience the most dramatic results, but you may be pleasantly surprised by even the simplest steps toward a healthier diet. You may experience some detox as you clean out your system, but once that's passed, you will feel more clear and alive than you ever have before.
On one last spiritual note, I have friends and loved ones who believe that eating meat is a part of their spiritual path. They may feel a deep spiritual connection with a meat-eating animal, or with a Goddess or God of the hunt. They choose to honor this sacred connection through the consumption of meat. Therefore, live foods strikes them as contrary to their beliefs.
Eating meat is no longer my path, and never will be again. If someone came to me for advice on the matter, I would actively advise them against consuming meat. However, if the person eating meat is willing to hunt or kill their own [or accept gifts from a loved one who does the same]; if they honor their prey as sacred; and if they understand that we human beings are biologically frugivores [fruit and vegetation eaters], not carnivores; then I accept and respect their practice.
Meat-eating or cooked-eating of any sort is not necessary, even for people with a spiritual connection to meat-eaters. I believe that there are other ways of honoring a relationship with a meat-eating animal or a Deity of the hunt. But it is a choice, one that I respect as much as the people who make it. As someone who currently kills plants in order to eat them, I can understand and respect a spiritual meat-eater's relationship with the animals that they eat. All that I ask is that they do so in a conscious way, which includes both honoring the animals and embracing live foods outside of their spiritual meat consumption.
What do live foodists eat?
Live foodists eat such a wide variety of foods that I could never hope to list them all! However, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the possibilities, here are just a few of the types of dishes that I have personally prepared or sampled:
* Salad [hearty dark greens, fruits and veggies, delightful dressings, crunchy nuts and seeds]
* Soup [yes, even rather warm soup, though not hot]
* Juices and Smoothies
* Guacamole
* Salsa
* Humus [I make an infamous almond humus]
* Chips and Crackers [dehydrated at low temperatures]
* Nut Butters
* Bread [dehydrated]
* Pie [chilled or frozen for firmness]
* Pudding [chilled]
* Cookies [dehydrated]
* Fudge [made with raw carob, chilled or frozen]
* "Chocolate" Milk [carob plus sweet young coconut milk]
* Veggie Burgers [dehydrated]
* Pizza [dehydrated crust, tomato sauce, nut cheese, toppings]
* Lasagna [zucchini pasta, nut cheese, tomato sauce]
With live foods, the possibilities are endless! Once you've gotten used to preparing and eating dishes with live ingredients, you can mix and match any of them to your heart's content. This is one of the reasons why I refer to live foods as a lifestyle rather than a diet. It involves cherishing your food, experiencing it with all of your senses, and discovering your hidden ability to come up with creative food combinations to provide an endless source of joy and fulfillment. This conscious experience of food is both a celebration of life and a clue as to whether or not the food is good for you.
Examine the taste, smell, texture, color, of your meal. Do you find it pleasing? Are you eating it from a place of calm and happiness, or are you feeding your anxiety and discontent in life by using it as a comfort food? Be mindful of the effects of your meal as it passes through your digestive system. Does it still feel good? Does it have a desireable effect on your mood, your breathing, your energy, your stamina, your creativity, your consciousness?
This is one of the great forgotten joys of life that many live foodists have rediscovered: your body, emotions, mind, and spirit are capable of a tremendous level of understanding about the effects of foods that enter your body. As you learn to cultivate this understanding, a wide variety of combinations and meals will make themselves readily apparent.
How about a salad with a little nut butter in the dressing to give it a nice creamy consistency? Why not make some guacamole, salsa, and "sour cream," and wrap it up in a couple of big collard leaves, like a green burrito? Or maybe you'd prefer a rare sweet treat - a handful of fresh figs, or a tall mug of coconut milk with carob powder for that chocolatey craving of yous?
You can say what you like about live foods, but it's certainly never boring! The wondrous variety of the Earth's plant life combined with your creativity and joyous mindfulness can turn mealtime into one of the happiest and healthiest moments of your day.
Farmer's Market
A farmer's market is a place where local farmers gather to sell their produce directly to the public. Since food only travels a short distance to market, it costs less money [and consumes less resouces] to get it there. Since they're cutting out the grocery store, it costs even less money [and consumes less resources]. It's also very likely to be more fresh for these same reasons. A good farmer's market costs you less money, gives you higher quality produce, and has a much lighter ecological footprint.
Many communities, from small towns to large sprawling cities, have a farmer's market. If you live in the U.S., you can visit the USDA website for more information on a farmer's market near you.
Do I have to be a raw foodist to benefit from a more raw diet?
Not at all! Everyone can enjoy a healthier and happier life through increasing the amount of raw foods in their diet. My first step into the world of raw foods was switching from cereal to fruit in the morning for breakfast. By giving your body a raw, juicy treat in the morning, you are helping yourself to continue the process of eliminating toxins that began while you were sleeping. Do you like salads? Have a salad before lunch and dinner; if you are satisfied with the salad, why eat something more? If you're not a big salad fan, you might try guacamole, soups, raw veggies, fruits, or many of the other simple dishes suggested above and on the websites listed below. Of course, to receive the full benefits of a raw foods diet you must be as close to completely raw as possible; however, even by eating fruit for breakfast and having a significant amount of raw foods at each meal, you're already going a long way to improve your health and happiness. And who knows... once you realize the joys of even a little raw food in your life, maybe you will eventually want to transition to a raw foods lifestyle too. Either way, you can't go wrong with raw foods!
http://treesong.org/livefoods/
