Every living organism adapts to its environment. For example, hares change their gray-brown summer fur to white in winter. The color of the fur is changed so that the hare is not visible against the background of grass and bushes in summer and against the snow in winter. This camouflage hides hares from predators and increases their chances of survival. If you get under a very hot shower in the morning, you can get scalded. And if you make the water moderately hot, and then gradually remove the cold water, you can safely stand under a very hot stream. The human body adapts to the gradual increase in temperature and does not get burned. We wear boots in the winter, and when we start walking barefoot on gravel in the spring, our soles hurt. But by the end of the summer, it no longer hurts us to walk on gravel. The micromuscules in our feet have gotten stronger and when we step on gravel our feet sort of streamline it. The body has adapted to our needs. Have you ever been stuck in traffic on your way home from work? When you are sitting in the car, you turn on the radio to pass the waiting time. The next morning you get up early for work and quietly walk to your car, turn the key in the ignition and, oh horror! The music is blaring so loud it hurts your ears. How did this happen? The answer is quite interesting. When you were in the city, your hearing adjusted to the noise of traffic. You're about 20% deaf. Your body has rearranged itself, t.к. noise is very harmful, and if your body didn't, you'd get a headache. Your body has adjusted to the noise of the city. Then you went back to the quiet house and fell asleep. Your body has now readjusted to the silence of the house, however your car has not.
In Russia, some people drink a bottle of vodka a day. If we take someone who has never drank alcohol and let them drink a glass of vodka, that person may die of alcohol poisoning. In alcoholics, the bodies are accustomed to large doses of alcohol.
In the book "The Higher Consciousness of Man" by Dr. Hilton Hotem, I read about Claude Bernard's experiment with birds. He found that if a healthy bird is put under a cap of a certain size with a supply of air for exactly three hours, and then taken out only after two hours, knowing that it can live under the cap for another hour, and another bird of the same size is put there, it will drop dead immediately. The second bird was not used to the reduced oxygen levels. The bird, after sitting under the hood for two hours, became accustomed to the gradual depletion of oxygen, which allowed it to live longer. The second bird, however, had no time to adjust; the change came too abruptly.
This experiment proves that the body adapts to survive. Our human bodies have adapted to the many forces and influences of the external environment in the process of survival. Just think of what we've adapted to: to radiation from microwaves, to wearing glasses and shoes, to noise, to polluted air, to going to school, to chlorinated water, to violence, to constant room temperature at all times, to television, to music, to lack of sleep, to donuts, lack of exercise, poor diet, electricity, stress, pharmaceutical pills, driving cars, synthetic clothing, living alone, artificial food, synthetic vitamins, and a host of other things.
When your body adapts to something, you pay the price with your health. We pay with our energy and longevity. So what should we do to have more energy and live longer? Get closer to nature. Be happy. Get rid of external pressures and stress. Sleep in the fresh air. Let you get cold and wet. Go camping. You can change your diet. You can become a raw foodist. It's quite realistic.
If cooked food is not the ideal source of nutrition for our bodies, then how did we arrive at a diet where 90-95% of everything is cooked? Our ancestors 10.000-15.000 years ago were raw eaters. But, as I imagine, one day there was a big fire in the forest and all the edible roots, plants and grains were burned. There was no food. The family was hungry, and our forefather went into the burned forest and found a piece of roasted venison and thought, "We've never eaten this, but it's better than starving to death." He brought the fried meat home and the family ate it. Everyone agreed that it was better to change your diet than to starve yourself. Their bodies were left with one of two things: either reject the fried food and starve to death, or adapt and live. Their bodies have adapted.
So how does the body adapt to cooked food? The body produces mucus and uses that mucus as a filter. The entire surface of the digestive tract that absorbs nutrients is covered with a mucous film that prevents toxins from entering the bloodstream. This mucous film starts on the tongue and spreads to the entire intestine. Many people see this mucus on their tongue. Those whose intestines are covered with a thick layer of mucus usually have a white tongue, as if they had just eaten sour cream. At first, the body produces a small amount of mucus to filter out the toxins from the cooked food. The more we eat cooked food, the more your body produces protective mucus. The more junk food we ingest, the thicker this mucus film becomes. Over the years, it thickens and hardens.
Your body produces its first mucus when we are still children eating our first portion of cooked food. And the next time we eat cooked food, the toxins from that food don't fully penetrate the body, thanks to the protection of that mucus. This mucus covers the entire digestive tract to prevent toxins from cooked food from entering our bloodstream.
We fear staph, salmonella and other bacteria, so we boil, pasteurize and irradiate everything we can. We ingest huge amounts of cooked food, so your body produces huge amounts of mucus.
Naturopaths call this mucus on the intestinal walls a mucus crust. It looks like a dark green rubber hose 25 meters long. Because of this crust, our absorption of nutrients is reduced. It protects us from toxins and at the same time prevents us from absorbing nutrients. The more of this mucus we have, the less nutrients we get. After any number of years on cooked foods, we develop serious nutrient deficiencies and feel hungry all the time.
We're getting more and more hungry. And there comes a state like I had 8 years ago when, having just eaten, I was already hungry again. We're always hungry, t.к. our bodies require nutrients. Our cells need all 120 minerals. They ask for sodium and magnesium and copper and zinc. Give me potassium, please! We constantly want to eat something, but when we eat, we digest very little.
When we go raw, after a certain amount of time these mucous layers begin to resorb. When the time comes, the body knows what needs to be done. The more we eat raw food, the more mucus is resorbed. If we become 100% raw eaters, the mucus disappears altogether and the digestibility of food in our digestive tract increases. When we make the decision to become 100% raw foodists, we don't need to notify all of our bodies. Your body knows this and immediately begins to change and celebrate. It's saying, "Hey! He's becoming a raw foodist. Do you hear that? 100% raw food!" The table below shows how the amount of cooked food we absorb relates to the amount of digested food we eat. I compiled this chart based on extensive observation of many people as they transitioned to raw food, as well as studying dozens of books and magazines. You'll realize that the above numbers are accurate if you ever switch to raw foodism.
The percentage of cooked food to raw food and the percentage of digestibility.
Percentage ratio of cooked food to raw food and digestibility percentage
:rice1:
Let me explain this table with an example. Let's call our hero Jim, age between 40 and 50. Jim eats very little raw food. He is always hungry, eating sandwiches several times, being very hungry. They feel hungry and their energy levels drop and they have to eat. Meanwhile, Sergei rides around all day and doesn't get tired after eating only two oranges. The secret is that he assimilates 30% while his friends only assimilate from 0.03% to 0.1%.
In Jim's example, why does the last 1% in the transition from 99% to 100% raw play such a big role in the percentage of digestibility? Obviously, there are several reasons. The most important one I find is the fact that 100% raw eaters have a complete absence of mucus crust in their intestines, while those people who at least occasionally eat even a little bit of cooked food continue to have almost complete mucus crust!
Here's what I found about the last 1% in the book of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). At AA meetings, members are encouraged to be 100% sober. If any of them show up to a meeting and say they are 99% sober, t.к. one day he has a shot of vodka, he'll be told he can't consider himself sober. AA members realized a long time ago that quitting drinking 99% of the time is not going to work. If someone really wants to quit drinking, they need to do it 100%. That last 1%, no matter how small, will keep the body wanting to drink.
Your body will usually readjust to eating raw foods pretty quickly. For example, Andrew has been used to eating boiled rice since he was a child. His body had biochemically and psychologically adjusted to the habit. One day Andrew realized that white rice was not good for his health and he decided to stop eating it. As a result, Andrew's body began to demand boiled rice, and he constantly felt excruciating hunger. When we want something badly, it is very often our body's biochemical or emotional response to some event. Andrew's body is used to getting carbohydrates from cooked rice. Now he began to look for carbohydrate sources among raw foods. Andrew started getting his carbs by eating raw corn, sprouted grains and carrots. After two months, Andrei's body rebuilt itself and he no longer craved rice. When we eat mostly cooked food, it's easy to overeat. It's like we don't know when to stop. Our parents indoctrinated us from childhood with the bad habit of eating everything to the end. So we can't just throw away leftovers, we have to finish everything, even if it goes to our detriment.
When we allow ourselves 1%, we leave a loophole to gluttony when we feel like it. When we are depressed, or hungry, or embittered, or tired, then we overeat. Then we pounce on cooked food, drink alcohol, smoke or take drugs. By giving up the last 1% of cooked food, you are completely closing the door to cooked food. When we close the door to cooked food, we close the door to temptation.
When my family went 100% raw eight years ago, my good friend Judy also went raw. But only 95%. I agonized for two months while my body readjusted from cooked food to completely raw. After two months, I was no longer craving cooked food. My appetite for cooked food was gone. I stopped paying attention to restaurants and the smell of food or coffee. After living in Ashland, Oregon for three years, I don't even know the name of a single restaurant. I know three health stores and I know a bar that serves fresh juices. I don't pay attention to anything else. To me, cooked food looks like plastic - inedible. That's how I feel. Boiled food doesn't tempt me anymore because it's no longer food to me.
My friend Judy, however, continues to suffer. She'll sit on raw for weeks and then someone will visit her and she'll eat cooked again. She says, "For two weeks I ate 95% raw, and then my aunt came to visit and made a cake so delicious I had to try it. After that, I started eating more cooked foods. I snapped. I stepped back." Another time, she said: "I held off until Thanksgiving and decided I would give myself a break and recover after the holiday. But I was only able to recover to 95% raw after the first week of February. By leaving a loophole for cooked food even if it's only 1%, my friend Judy is prolonging her agony.
For 99% of us, we are still attached to cooked food anyway and allow ourselves to snap when we want to. I know many who were on raw 99% of the time, but after a few months went back completely on cooked food. That little 1% inevitably leads us back to cooked food. My point is that it's much easier to go 100% raw right away. Yes, you'll suffer two months of temptation, but after those two months it will get a lot easier. Remove all temptations from your home: cooked food, canned food, restaurant menus, and don't go to restaurants, birthdays, or visits for at least two months. Create a life for yourself without temptation. It's much easier to become a 100% raw foodist when you do it consciously. Don't become a raw foodist until you feel you are completely ready.
When you realize that you are addicted to cooked food, you will want to become a 100% raw food eater. It is very hard to transition to raw food without the necessary support. I know a fair number of people who realize the benefits of raw food, have switched to 100% raw food and have been on it for months, but at some point, when they feel hungry, or lonely, or annoyed, or tired, they go back to what they are used to - cooked food..
