INCREASED PROTEIN FROM RAW VEGETABLES!
DR. BILL MISNER, Ph.D.
While many main-line certified nutritionists have, in the past, criticized raw-foodists as fanatics from the "fringe", convincing arguments advanced in books by medical doctors such as Dr. Bernard Jensen,M.D.("Foods That Heal",1993), Dr. James E. Balch, M.D.("Prescription for Nutritional Healing"1990), and Dr. Jonathan Wright, M.D.("Guide to Healing with Nutrition"1990) suggest that raw food ingestion may be an effective beneficial nutritional adjunct for decreasing and/or preventing a variety of chronic degenerative conditions. Time and money necessary for sensitive, detailed, reliable research studies delay the much-awaited confirmation of the raw-foodist hypothesis which associates multiple benefits pro-human health from eating full-grown produce directly from the hand of nature...without intermediary processing or cooking. Many individual practicing raw foodists are clearly walking examples of vitality, health and vigor! The Vilcambas of Ecuador, the Abkhasians from the Black Sea area of the USSR, and the Hunzas from the Himalayas of Pakistan are exemplary full cultures whose quality of life extends into their first century of life from a diet that consists of 98.5% raw or vegetarian sources.
Don't believe in this vegetarian or raw-food advantage? Well then, just ask any pig! Darragh & Moughan(1995) found that 3-week-old piglets had similar fecal digestibilies for most of the amino acids to those found digested from human infant specimens. In other words, the digestion of protein appeared to be similar in both, making the piglet a model for studying human protein digestion. Van Barneveld(1994) found that raw peas yielded greater quantity and quality of amino acids than peas which had been "heated".
When heat from forced air dehydrators was applied at 110, 135, and 150-165 degrees to peas fed to these pigs, it was observed that heat linearly depressed digestible energy, diet dry-matter digestibility and diet energy digestibility. Losses in Lysine,(Lysine binding from Silock-reactive lysine), Cystine and Arginine from heat application were suggested likely due to early and advanced Maillard reactions.
What some of the raw-foodists have known and touted anecdotally for some time is just being "discovered" in the test tubes, and under a fine illuminate lens of the electron microscope. Dr.'s Balch, Wright, and Jensen separately advise 50% or more raw food intake for both preventing and treating a broad spectrum of degenerative diseases.
It is highly probable that God created the raw food "formula" at a synergistic optimum in the moment when the fruit or veggie of the vine is "ripe and ready" to eat. Perhaps, the "mainlined establishment" is finally inching toward decreasing the use of processed foods, while increasing raw food intake for the sake of health and increased protein substrate digestion.
Dr. Misner may be reached at1-800-336-1977
REFERENCES
Darragh AJ, Moughan PJ, "The Three-Week-Old Piglet as a model for studying protein digestion in infants," J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr, 1995, 21:4, 387-393.
Van Barneveld RJ et al., "The effect 0f heat on amino acids for growing pigs. 1. A comparison of ileal and faecal digestibilities of amino acids in raw and heat-treated field peas(Pisum satvum cultivar Dundale)"
Jensen B, Foods that Heal, Avery Publishing Group Inc., Garden City, NY, 1993.
Balch JA, Balch PA, Prescription for Nutritional Healing, Avery Publishing Group, Garden City, NY, 1990.
Wright JV, Guide to Healing Nutrition, Keats Publishing, New Caanan, Conn.,1990.
