The word “alive” or living brings hope, reassurance, life, health, sustenance while the word “dead” connotes a lot of negative things depending on the context it is used.
I'm so excited about this topic because finally we can begin to get down to business i.e. the reason we feel the way we feel.
Today the challenge is to find out how alive or dead the food we consume is. There are many places where we store food in our homes but I chose the refrigerator because it’s one the most frequently visited places where we store food.
You may be wondering why you should care or why this is important. The answer is simple: nutrient value and the health of your body.
94% of all chronic diseases like diabetes, obesity, autoimmune diseases, infertility, cancer and more are related to food intake. Think of how many lives we would be able to save if we were able to effectively teach people how to make healthy food choices and give them ways to stick to it. Living foods—especially fresh, raw foods—are more nutritious because they still have all of their vitamins, minerals, and enzymes (which the body needs to help you properly digest and metabolize food). Some of these nutrients in food typically get destroyed during the processing, cooking, and packaging that dead food goes through. In the most dangerous categories of dead foods—those that have refined flour and added sugar—they may actually suck stored vitamins out of your body as your system tries to metabolize them.
You can eat food that is organic every day, but if most of it is cooked on high heat then it is void of nutrition. Just about everyone has heard of the benefits of eating raw "live" food, but what ratio of your total food intake is actually raw (or not heated over 120 degrees)? When you add up everything you put in your mouth, from baked, boiled, broiled, and fried, you may find you're eating a majority of "dead food." If you have a "cooked food" profile above 70%, you need to flip that ratio and become at least 70% raw, and it may take a while to adjust.
To begin today’s exercise, Click Here to get a download of Alive or Dead Check list. Go through items in your refrigerator to determine if they are living or dead. While you go thru items in your fridge, check them for expiry dates especially the bottled items.
Over the last 4 years, I've been spending a few weeks each year doing the Daniel fast which involves eating Living Food. These times have been the best seasons of my life. Apart from feeling so alive and healthier in my body, my spirit is so alert and I’m able to receive messages from God with great clarity and comprehension. The emotional highs and lows also disappear so it becomes a spirit, soul and body experience.
This exercise is more efficient for those who cook and eat at home regularly and have at least 10 -15 items in their refrigerator. So download the Checklist and get started.
Alive foods occur naturally in nature. They are healthy foods which grow naturally in the earth. They are food containing seed which makes them life because when you plant them they produce life. They are raw, unprocessed or uncooked food. These types of foods will provide your body with the nutrients it needs to function optimally.
Proper nourishment from "alive" foods and is one of the cornerstones to optimal health. This type of food contributes to your overall state of health and longevity. When you consume foods that deliver the nutrients your body needs in an easy to digest form that your body can efficiently utilize, your health will thrive and you'll feel amazing too!
Nuts, seeds, whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables are where the nutrition really is. That's where the vibrancy of life is really found, and where nature has provided all the medicine you'll ever need. These are the foods that allow your body to heal itself. Fresh fruits and vegetable fall into this category, as do milk and cheese, freshly made baked potatoes and potato dishes, and freshly baked breads.
As a general rule, if a food spoils quickly, it's a living food. An exception to the rule is in the case of seeds and nuts. If they are properly stored, they would last for a longer period of time.
Raw Food – Raw vegetables, fresh fruit, unroasted nuts and seeds, and sprouted grains, beans, and legumes are at the top of the living food pyramid. They are packed with vitamins and enzymes, all perfectly intact because the food is fresh and unaltered by heat, processing, or containerized storage
Try making a green smoothie for breakfast filled with yummy fresh cucumber, celery, wild blueberries and leafy greens. Eat a big salad with your favorite animal or non-animal form of protein for lunch. For dinner, start out with some fresh pressed veggie juice and then work your way into your favorite cooked foods.
Water is also living. It’s an excellent source of vital minerals that the body needs amongst its other functions. Human beings are the only that drink other liquids besides water.
Do you know about these appetite suppressants? They are a big glass of water, cardiovascular exercise and raw foods—that is, any raw food that's not very high glycemic. Raw vegetables are the best. They just shut off your appetite. The results are amazing.
Dead Food
Dead food is refined and processed food. It includes fast foods, pasteurized, homogenized, packaged, artificially colored food "stuff" like cheese-flavored snacks, potato chips, wheat crackers, beef jerky, vegetable chips, dried fruit, boxed cereal, meal replacement bars or TV dinners. Nuts that has been baked, boiled or steamed is also classified as dead food.
Most processed foods contain high amounts of sugar, salt and ingredients that lead to the health problems Americans experience today.
Food can also be "dead" by cooking it at high temperatures. These temperature destroy proteins, alter carbohydrates and actually form new carcinogenic compounds (like acrylamides). While some cooked foods are quite good for you (roots, leafy vegetables, etc.), they don't compare to the health-enhancing properties of living foods.
Once food has been heated above approximately 118 degrees Fahrenheit, a considerable amount of the nutritional value has been compromised. This means that you’re receiving partial benefits from eating the cooked food even if you have a plate full of colorful cooked vegetables.
A dead food is specifically a cooked food that does not have toxic ingredients. In other words, a dead food is better for you than a toxic food. Now, it may not give you outstanding nutrition, but at least it's not going to kill you. It's not going to poison your blood, and it won't accelerate your chronic disease in the same way that toxic foods do, so dead foods are a step up.
Toxic Food
Food become toxic because of toxic ingredients added to them or contain toxic chemicals as a result of their high temperature during cooking, processing or preservation. These are the foods in the grocery store that contain metabolic disrupting ingredients like monosodium glutamate, yeast extract, hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils, artificial colors, sodium nitrate, refined sugars, white flour and lots of sodium. These are toxic ingredients.
Even though white flour might sound kind of natural because it's made from wheat, but contains a toxic chemical called alloxan, which promotes type 2 diabetes. It's a contaminant that results from the bleaching process of white flour, but, of course, it's not listed on the label.
Carbohydrates cooked at very high temperatures—especially potato chips, nacho chips or any other fried snack chips—contain chemicals that aren't listed on the label. These chemicals cause cancer. Though they aren't added as ingredients. They're just byproducts of the cooking process.
Another culprit is processed meats i.e. beef jerky, sausage, hot dogs, pepperoni, salami, bologna and packaged ham and turkey which contain cancer causing agents like sodium nitrite or nitrate. They are color-fixing chemicals which make the food look more attractive.
These foods will give you cancer, diabetes, heart disease and depression. They can literally imbalance your entire brain
function. They can destroy your moods and make you become negative and depressed. All these toxic foods stress out your entire system. It's like injecting poison into your blood.
Yeast extract is something to watch out for. It's a way companies slip MSG into foods without having to put it on the label. Basically, food companies have found a clever way to get free glutamate—which is like an amino acid—into their foods, and this is what stimulates the taste buds and makes food taste better than it should. It gives foods a deeper, richer, more exciting taste.
Cooked Food Vs Raw Food
For starters, cooked foods will make you feel hungry. That's right; if you eat cooked foods, especially cooked carbohydrates in any form—even whole grains—they will make you feel hungry. If you ate those exact same grains raw, you'd feel so full you couldn't take another bite. The same is true with vegetables. If you cook some cabbage and eat it, you won't fill up. If you eat raw cabbage, you feel full before you've hardly eaten anything. Raw vegetables are the best. They just shut off your appetite. They don't even have to be whole vegetables. They can be blended. Try eating half a bowl of raw soup; it just turns off your appetite. Dead foods stimulate your appetite, and raw foods turn it off. If you see someone who's overweight, you can assume that person is eating lots of dead foods and probably a fair amount of carbohydrates.
Final Advice on Living Food
To get the maximum punch of the vitamins, minerals and enzymes your body needs to run well, stick with raw, living food as much as possible. Living food is not only better for you than dead food, it's better for the environment too. When you buy living food, you eliminate the energy, raw materials, and waste products associated with processing the food and storing it in cans, bottles, boxes, and shrink wrap. And the more raw food you eat, the less energy you use for cooking.
I understand that it takes lots of determination and discipline to restrict yourself to a raw food diet and get completely get away from dead food. But as much as you can even if you start slowly, always choose living food over dead or toxic food. Sometimes it's just a matter of better planning; for instance, consider keeping a bag of natural trail mix in your desk drawer rather than a bag of chips. . Start with one meal a day that contains zero dead food and slowly you will shift into a healthier lifestyle. Instead of packaged, flavored and overly sweetened instant oatmeal for breakfast, try two eggs scrambled with some tomato and avocado. Not only will you feel better, but you'll be fuller longer.
Always read the ingredients of food items you're buying. Keep educating yourself. That is how you are able to make informed choices. The result? A life free of chronic disease, chronic pain and depression. You will be happy, full of life and energy. If an ingredient is not recognized as a food that is as close to its natural state as possible—don't eat it. For example cashews versus corn syrup, sea salt versus MSG.
The next time you go grocery shopping, put the following on your next list: Green leafy vegetables, fresh fruits and raw nuts
So, go ahead, give it a shot—choose life today by avoiding dead foods as much as possible and go for the living ones.
Now it's your turn to speak - Were you inspired, motivated or encouraged to take action or make changes?
I would love to hear your comments, questions or feedback. Please leave me a comment below. Thanks :-)
Do me a favor, live the good life that God has blessed you with to the full till it overflows by staying fit and fabulous.
Cheers,
Ade