The Role of live foods when ill

People whose digestive impairments limit the use of uncooked food should utilize live foods as much as possible, and to whatever extent they can, while they aim for restoration of normal function without drugs or surgery, but rest, short fasts, followed by a gradual implementation of improved eating and living practices, adapted to the limitations of that individual.

The goal should be the gradual achievement of a diet predominate in uncooked foods, because the nutrients available in live foods are many time greater than those remaining after food has been cooked for otherwise processed.

Live foods improve the total internal environment. Sluggish bowels begin to move, eventually cleaning out waste that have been lodged in the folds of the intestine for months, even years. They layer of mucous that forms in the intestines when cooked food predominates is removed, greatly increasing efficiency in the absorption of nutrients. Food wastes do not stay in the bowels long enough to putrefy. The transit time of live food in a healthy body is 20 to 24 hours, while cooked food may take up to three days or longer.

Some scientific researchers and medical doctors now recognize the value of raw food, both in health maintenance and for improvement or remission in chronic illnesses.

In the past it has been believed that it was more difficult for a person with digestive problems to digest raw foods.
But in reality cooked food takes longer to digest than raw food and raw foods are less stressful on patients with poor digestion. It may be easier for these persons to have their live foods cut-up, or chopped up finer. Fresh raw juices may be the best method to take for a few weeks until digestion gets back on a more normal track.

ENZYMES – The enzyme is perhaps one of the greatest arguments against the practice of cooking anything that can be suitable eaten raw. Raw foods contain many enzymes essential to health.

Enzymes are destroyed by heat over 122 degrees Fahrenheit. Enzymes in fruit and vegetables play a vital role in the metabolic activity of plant cells. Among other things, they are what cause fruit and vegetables to ripen. Sprouting grains and seeds greatly increase their vitamin content, and so they are most nutritious if eaten raw.

Out bodies contain many enzymes of their own, but consumption of raw fruits and vegetables enhances the actin of the enzymes in our bodies. They are essential factors in the proper digestion and assimilation of food.

Enzymes play a wide range of essential activities in all of the body’s functions. A diet low in or devoid of raw food enzymes can result in an abnormal drain on the bodies own enzymes resulting in poor health and premature aging.

This is only a summary. If you study this subject you will understand the details of the vital importance of enzymes.

Sister Kathleen Ross