Eating raw foods: traditional foods, raw food benefits, Pottenger's cats, and the raw food diet.
Believe it or not, eating raw foods has been a cultural tradition for many people in many different countries for quite some time now.
If you have ever dined out at a fine Italian, French, or Ethiopian restaurant, you'll have seen a few of these traditional raw foods on the menu.
Have you ever tried carpaccio or steak tartare?
I do believe in eating raw animal foods for the raw food benefits that
come with these traditional foods. And there are numerous health
benefits!!
Also, now that I'm in my sixties, I've become very sensitive to the ill effects of eating cooked foods - especially cooked animal foods.
Why would cooked foods become a problem you ask?
Read Pottenger's cats a groundbreaking study which shined a big light on the
difference that raw animal foods had on generations of cats versus cooked foods.
This study proved that raw animal foods come with vital nutrients that are not found in their cooked food counterparts. Keep reading and I'll tell you more.
Traditional foods: eating raw foods from around the world.
As you probably already know, sushi and sashimi are traditional raw foods from the Japanese culture.
Did you notice that the Japanese people are pretty healthy and smart?
Before the age of pasteurized milk and its products, whole nations of people lived on raw milk, raw butter, raw cream, and raw cheese. And they were able to maintain a high standard of health.
However, most people will be shocked to learn, there are many traditional raw meat dishes consumed in many countries around the world, but for some reason eating raw meat is often discouraged or feared.
That is why it took me such a long time to eat raw meat. Ironically, now I fear eating cooked meat - LOL!
Cooked meat comes with many toxins such as heterocyclic amines HCAs and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or PAHs.
These toxins are formed when muscle meat like beef, pork, fish, or poultry is cooked using high-temperature methods such as grilling.
Advanced glycation end products or AGEs are another well known cooked food toxin produced by frying, roasting, browning, or grilling meats.
Despite being more nutritious and being free of cooked food toxins, eating raw foods like raw meat is not that accepted in modern times, even though it is a traditional food.
Popular traditional raw meat dishes from around the world.
The following raw meat dishes are some of the most popular or well known in their respective countries and you may have seen at least one of them.
There are also many different variations of these raw meat dishes to try and create. Always remember, people really like to eat with their eyes first.
Most of these raw meat dishes are usually seasoned with salt. Personally, I do not believe in eating salt and try to avoid salt as best I can, but suit yourself.
Eating raw foods in France: Steak Tartare or Beef Tartare
Steak tartare is a French classic that is served as a very nutritious appetizer.
This
famous raw meat dish is usually made with finely chopped beef
tenderloin.
Steak tartare will be seasoned with salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and Dijon mustard.
Capers, shallots, herbs, and chopped gherkins are the other common ingredients used to make steak tartare.
After mixing the ingredients together, the meat mixture is usually shaped with a mold and then topped with a raw egg yolk.
This classic and well-known raw meat dish is usually served with French fries, rye bread, or toasted bread. Here's my nutrient dense version of how to make steak tartare.
Eating raw foods in the United States: Tiger meat, Cannibal sandwich, and Parisa
Just to be clear, these American classics are not made from a Tiger or another human being! Probably just given names that helped create an adventurous culinary experience.
Tiger meat is a traditional South Dakota delicacy and is often found at local butcher shops.
It's made with fresh, high-quality raw ground beef.
Tiger meat is usually seasoned with salt, pepper, onions, Tabasco sauce, and spices like cayenne.
It's served cold, often spread on crackers or bread.
Variations can include raw egg yolk, mustard, garlic, and Worcestershire sauce.
These variations reflect the influence of European immigrant's steak tartare.
Funnily, a cannibal sandwich sometimes referred to as tiger meat, is a long-held tradition in Wisconsin especially during winter time and at holiday gatherings.
Usually, a cannibal sandwich consisits of seasoned raw ground beef topped with slices of raw onion on rye bread.
Parisa aka cowboy ceviche is a Southern Texan raw meat specialty.
Parisa or cowboy ceviche can be made from finely chopped raw beef, bison, or venison.
The raw meat is mixed with cheddar cheese, minced onions, citrus juice, and hot peppers.
Parisa is usually spread on crackers or bread. Some eat Parisa with chips.
Eating raw foods in Germany: Mett
This popular German raw meat dish is made from minced raw pork. Yes, you heard that right - raw pork!
This raw pork specialty is usually flavored with salt and pepper. It can also be enhanced with crushed caraway and garlic depending on where you live in the country.
Marjoram and nutmeg can also be added to raw pork for additional flavor.
In Germany, seasoned raw minced pork is slathered on bread rolls or slices of bread. Sometimes, with raw onions on top.
Sometimes, Mett is shaped in the form of a hedgehog for festive occasions.
Sliced white onions are placed on top in rows to emulate the spikes. So cute!!
Eating raw foods in Italy: Beef Carpaccio
This beautiful traditional Italian raw meat dish can be served as an entree or as an appetizer.
Carpaccio is made of very thin slices of raw beef sirloin arranged in a single layer on a plate.
This raw meat dish is usually topped with extra virgin olive oil, Parmesan cheese shavings, and lemon juice.
You can also top Carpaccio with arugula, truffle shavings, or Dijon mustard if you like.
Carpaccio was named in honor of the painter Vittore Carpaccio whose style and bold colors where reminiscent of the intense red color of raw meat.
It's said this raw meat specialty was created during the 1950s by a Venetian restaurateur named Giuseppe Cipriani, the owner of Harry's Bar.
It's said that he was inspired by a raw meat specialty from the region that was eaten for centuries.
Rumor is Giuseppe first made this raw dish for a Countess whose doctors had recommended that she eat raw meat!
Eating raw foods in Korea: Yukhoe
This delicious Korean raw meat dish consists of thinly sliced or julienned beef marinated in a soy-based sauce that can include sesame oil, garlic, pepper, salt, ginger, and a sweetener like honey.
Good quality lean beef is used to make Yukhoe such as flank steak, sirloin, or filet mignon.
This
raw meat dish is almost always topped with a raw egg yolk. Sesame
seeds are typically used as a garnish and sometimes pine nuts.
Thinly sliced Korean pear is often served as a side for this Korean raw meat dish. However, this raw dish can also be served with shredded cucumber or shredded scallions.
Eating raw foods in Ethiopia: Kitfo
Kitfo is a very popular raw meat dish from Ethiopia. This is what I order whenever I go to an Ethiopian restaurant.
It is so delicious, but it's very spicy!
Kitfo is made from raw quality beef that is minced or freshly ground.
It is then combined with mitmita, which is an Ethiopian hot blend of spices. It is also seasoned with niter kibbeh, which is a seasoned clarified butter.
This spicy raw meat dish is usually served with cooked greens, soft cheese, and a fermented flat bread called injera.
As you can see the tradition of eating raw meat is practiced all around the world. Why is that you say?
Probably because of the nutrients that you'll receive from eating raw foods like raw meat and it's also an easy to digest protein.
Raw food benefits: whole vitamin complexes, faulty studies, and increasing your enzyme potential.
Raw food benefits will include receiving whole vitamin complexes that come with enzymes, which are just two big benefits that come from eating raw foods.
It is so imperative that you understand, good health doesn't come from the measured quantity of just one component found in a pill.
By comparison, good health can come from "live" and functional vitamins that come from whole foods found in Nature. Did you know there are many unknown "activators" present in whole foods?
- Man has not yet begun to identify them, let alone know what they are good for and how to duplicate them.
Whole vitamin complexes you get from eating raw foods will be properly utilized by your body, which makes them a better choice when compared to vitamin supplements.
Synthetic vitamins are "dead" and can not provide the nutritional support needed for good health, plus are almost always taken in a "high-potency" dose.
A large amount is required of an isolated vitamin to achieve specific reactions in animals and in humans. It's not necessarily a nutritional reaction!!!
Did you know, any substance you ingest that your body doesn't recognize as food will be handled as a toxin?
This toxin may be rushed through your circulatory system to your kidneys to be excreted. You might be flushing away your money!
Also, because high-dose vitamins create a drug-like effect, this can create imbalances, which will cause more harm than good.
Vitamins from natural whole foods will have a much lower "measured potency" and will come with their natural synergists or co-factors.
Natural food complexes don't cause adverse drug-like effects and there's very little risk of an overdose or creating an imbalance.
The vitamin complexes you'll get from eating raw foods such as raw eggs, raw fruits, raw vegetables, raw seafood, raw meats, and raw milk will have a much greater function than taking synthetic supplements and eating cooked foods.
Something to think about: living things can only be produced from living things and never from non-living matter!! Don't be fooled into thinking - your body won't know the difference.
Raw food benefit of eating raw foods: doesn't cause increase in white blood cells.
According to, The Real Truth About Vitamins & Antioxidants, "Arthur F. Cocoa, M.D., discovered that the heartrate (pulse count) rises after eating or ingesting a substance that creates an "allergic" reaction - toxic reaction.
Increased pulse rate means faster circulation, increased to accelerate the toxin's journey to the kidneys for elimination.
A very related phenomenon is an increase in white blood cell (leukocyte) counts that's experienced after the consumption of foods altered by high temperatures, refining, or processing.
By the way, this never follows ingestion of eating raw foods, documented by Paul Kouchakoff, M.D.
He said, "it is "food-stuffs in the state in which they exist in nature" that do not cause any "infringement" on the blood formula." And he stressed the importance of the "quality of food."
He also said, "physiological phenomenon experienced by consumption of cooked or refined foods is a "pathological one," the body's reaction to toxic materials."
Whole vitamin complexes: different than what most people would consider a vitamin.
A vitamin is considered a single substance by most people. You'll often hear people say, "Are you getting enough vitamin C or vitamin D?
Unfortunately, many will run to the nearest drugstore or even a health food store to pick up a bottle of these synthetic and isolated vitamins.
Vitamins found in Nature come with many co-factors, which makes them a whole complex.
The word "complex" comes from the Latin, complexus, for "woven together," indicating an inseparableness, which otherwise disrupts and destroys the whole.
Did you know that vitamins will never occur by themselves in nature? This is a known fact, which has been shown by careful scientific examination and experimentation.
The Real Truth About Vitamins & Anti-oxidants by Judith A. Decava makes clear, "Isolated, nonfood, or manufactured "nutrients" have a limited effect compared to their natural complex counterparts found in whole foods.
Their effect is more drug-like than nutritional. They produce symptoms and if taken in high doses or for long periods of time - create biochemical disruptions."
Vitamins from whole foods come packaged with innumerable co-factors that function in an interrelated, balanced, intricate, symbiotic arrangement to ensure optimal use and benefit for the body.
Whole vitamin complexes are the safest and best way - Nature's way - of providing optimal nutrition for your body.
All human beings need the same nutrients, but in different amounts.
We all have similar nutritional needs, but the quantities of each nutrient will vary from person to person.
For example: Harry might need 10 times the amount of vitamin A than his wife Sue. And Sue might need 4 times the amount of vitamin C than Harry.
However, Harry and Sally will both need vitamin A and C to stay healthy - just in differing amounts. Also, various tissues within each person will have different requirements.
If Harry and Sue consume whole foods or food concentrates that contain whole vitamin complexes, their bodies will choose the correct amount of vitamin A and C needed and will excrete the rest. This is called selective absorption.
With the man-made vitamins that are fractionated, isolated, and synthetic - Harry and Sue won't have that choice!
They will have to handle these unnatural and high-dose vitamins in some way, which may lead to suffering consequences of biochemical imbalances and toxic overdoses!
Isolated vitamins: when the honeymoon phase is over - watch out!!
As will be shown shortly, vitamins from foods in their natural, complex form are far superior to isolated or chemically-manufactured drug-like substances commonly called vitamins.
In the beginning of taking man-made vitamins, there is an "apparent" physiological response that may feel "blissful" to some.
Many will experience an immediate energy increase, which often occurs when taking drugs. This "seemingly" good response will mask or hide symptoms.
- Drugs will either stop or slow a certain body function or they will stimulate a body function.
Just know, relief you feel from taking drug-like vitamins may be short-lived and only temporary.
After a period of time, your body's reserves of the complex co-factors of these "so-called-vitamins" will be depleted. And the "honeymoon phase" will be over!
Did you know, synthetic and isolated vitamins can actually create deficiencies?
Isolated vitamins when taken into the body must be "put into the proper combination" or recombined with the other natural components of that vitamin complex before they can function as a vitamin in your body.
In other words, those missing and natural co-factors will be taken from your body's reserves!!
This could lead to if taken for a long time, especially if you have a marginal deficiency of co-factors, to nutritional deficiencies that create imbalances in your body.
- Beware: Imbalances may actually turn out to be worse than the original deficiency!
Ironically, taking high-potency isolated vitamins may cause a deficiency of the vitamin itself.
Also, prior to being "recombined" with missing co-factors that will need to be taken from your body, most - if not all - of the isolated vitamins may be lost through your kidneys.
Have you heard the phrase, "Expensive Urine"?
The vitamin C complex: this may be a come-to-Jesus-moment!
Vitamin C is actually a complex that will be found in plant and in animal foods.
The vitamin C complex contains many co-factors.
Co-factors such as rutin or vitamin P, tyrosinase or organic copper, the "J" factor, vitamin K complex, ascorbic acid, bioflavonoids, and more all bound to a protein.
These co-factors will be linked together in a biochemical or live complex.
Most of the vitamin C that people buy at stores does not even come close to being the real thing. It is mostly chemically-manufactured crystalline-pure ascorbic acid.
Ascorbic acid is just a single component and the antioxidant part of the vitamin C complex.
Vitamin C complex foods: need to be eaten fresh!!
In 1747, James Lind a surgeon's mate in the British Navy, observed that fresh vegetables and fruits like citrus fruits - cured scurvy - a killer disease that debilitated sailors.
Scurvy is a disease caused by a serious deficiency of vitamin C and citrus fruits are well known to contain the vitamin C complex.
Other fruits and vegetables that are a good source of vitamin C: tomatoes, chili peppers, bell peppers, strawberries, cantaloupe, pineapple, papayas, guava, broccoli, kale, and cabbage.
Acerola cherries also known as the Barbados cherry is known to have a very high amount of vitamin C.
From the book, The Real Truth About Vitamins & Anti-oxidants, "Many people in industrialized countries like the U.S. show all the signs of sub-clinical scurvy and even clinical scurvy."
- Not usually recognized because the disease is considered "extremely rare" today". Or is it?
Did you know that vitamin C is easily oxidized and will disappear in the storage of fresh fruits and vegetables?
It's best to eat freshly picked fruits and vegetables whenever possible to get an adequate amount of vitamin C. That's why it's important to have your own garden or shop at places that sell fresh or local produce.
Now this may be a shocker, but fresh meats and organ meats will contain "valuable amounts" of the vitamin C complex.
However, in cold storage meat's vitamin C will be oxidized and meats lose their vitamin C. That's why I only buy fresh meats and won't buy meats that were previously frozen or frozen.
Another surprising source of the vitamin C complex is raw milk. Fresh raw milk is actually a very good source of the vitamin C complex.
Unfortunately, pasteurization and irradiation will destroy the vitamin C complex that's found in fresh raw milk.
With the way food is handled these days, a vitamin C deficiency is highly possible because most foods are harvested too early, irradiated, shipped too far, pasteurized, and stored for too long in cold storage.
The vitamin C complex is needed for almost all of your metabolic processes.
The vitamin C complex is needed for oxygen utilization, regeneration of blood cells, and iron/other mineral uptake.
Vitamin C is needed for maintaining endocrine function, metabolism of amino acids, cholesterol metabolism, respiratory enzyme systems, and the utilization of folic acid/other nutrients.
Vitamin C is needed for glutathione concentration that helps guard against inflammatory disease and other diseases.
Vitamin C is needed for cold-tolerance, proper blood-clotting time, growth, steroid hormone production, and metabolism.
It's also needed for your bones, teeth, and gums. Loose teeth and bleeding gums is a sign of a vitamin C deficiency.
There's some evidence that vitamin C aids in the prevention of cancer by supporting the body's defenses by helping to prevent toxic substances from developing into carcinogens.
By the way, man-made vitamin C can't cure scurvy.
This is taken from Kenneth Carpenter's book on the history of scurvy: "If we exclude straightforward famine, scurvy is probably the nutritional deficiency disease that has caused most suffering in recorded history."
Man-made, crystalline-pure, and isolated ascorbic acid, devoid of its co-factors can not cure scurvy that's an overt vitamin C complex deficiency!
Without its co-factors or synergists, ascorbic acid will not nearly have the same benefits of the complex form of the vitamin.
The ingestion of isolated ascorbic acid depletes bodily stores of other parts of the vitamin C complex such as tyrosinase, "J" factor, etc.
Synthetic drug-like vitamins tend to mask the problem, and not eliminate it.
These drug-like vitamins also contaminate the internal environment of your body.
Large doses of ascorbic acid come with biochemical disruptions!!
Shockingly, when 1,000 mg. of ascorbic acid is ingested, your blood uric acid and oxalate levels will rise.
At doses of 2,000 to 10,000 mg. diarrhea is likely to be a problem for you. As well as an elevated plasma glucose or blood sugar level.
Large doses of pure ascorbic acid can cause excess absorption of iron and enhance aluminum absorption!!
Shockingly, large doses can cause rebound scurvy, which is easy bruising and excessive bleeding.
Large doses weaken your red blood cells, which leads to the destruction of these cells. And irritate mucous membrane lining of the gastrointestinal tract and may even lead to renal or kidney calcification.
It seems that people have been trained at the onset of getting a "cold" to take a high dose of ascorbic acid.
A high dose of ascorbic acid acts as an anti-histamine, which is a drug that interferes with some of initial stages of the biochemistry of inflammation.
Inflammation is your body's natural process where it attempts to repair its tissue.
There may be some relief by taking a high dose of ascorbic acid, but it will stop this important healing process.
Dr. Casmir Funk, discoverer of the first vitamin (thiamin) and the man who invented the word, "vitamin," wrote: "Synthetic Vitamins: These are highly inferior to vitamins from natural sources, also, the synthetic product is well known to be far toxic."
Faulty studies started in 1950's: when nutritional studies started to head in the wrong direction.
At this point, you must be thinking, "Why did natural vitamin complexes get replaced with the synthetic versions we now call vitamins?"
Unfortunately, during the 1950s and 1960s politics decided to side with the overly powerful medical establishment via regulations and laws to ban the use of natural nutritional complexes - in particular.
According to the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, the term "drug" was (from about 1962 onward) defined to mean: "Articles intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of disease."
What this means is that nutrients can now only be tested as drugs; the isolated, synthetic chemicals would constitute the acceptable candidates
for such studies.
News of nutrients from 1962 onward from the radio, medical journals, TV, newspapers, and magazines are almost entirely based on studies using fractionated, crystalline-pure, synthetic chemicals.
Sadly, "true science" is now being judged on an experimental method that measures, classifies, and duplicates reactions as well as the effects of single chemicals.
This rules out testing natural vitamin complexes, for they are not pure chemicals, but natural food components inexplicably intertwined with related nutrients both known and unknown.
Also ruled out is seeing how a patient is doing and communicating with the patient as to their individual benefits, needs, and responses.
This is why we are seeing less and less real foods at the grocery stores and way more aisles of supplements even at the health food stores.
Did you know, in the beginning of vitamin research, most of the scientific experiments involved the use of natural, food-source nutrients and much was learned?
In the past, nutritional studies were based on Empirical studies, which is based on experience and observation. And working with actual people in real life circumstances or clinical practices.
These "were" the tools of learning in the past and they were also aided by deductive thought.
Unfortunately, nutritional studies turned away from the empirical studies and clinical practices - to sterile and controlled drug tests.
Today studies are usually done with test tubes, microscope slides, and rats by the way.
Rats are known scavengers that can use and combine dead, damaged, or isolated food components. Rats can take a single chemical and convert it into something useful for their bodies - to an extent.
Disturbingly, human nutritional requirements and RDAs are based on the lab results from experiments done on animals, mostly lab rats.
This should also blow your mind.........the amount found to alleviate disease in a rat or other laboratory animal is translated into the amount and form needed for humans.
When you think about it, these modern-day studies will be inconsistent with biological knowledge and common sense! Be cautious with "study results" these days.
I have seen a lot of people that go on extreme diets - get blood tests. If a vitamin deficiency shows up, they sometimes think just popping a high-dose synthetic vitamin will do the trick.
Sadly, the amount found in the blood will be used to measure success.
Can your body's cells really use synthetic vitamins as nourishment or will your cells consider them an alien substance?
- Remember, when "isolated" from their complexes, vitamins cannot be expected to perform their specific functions any longer.
In order to carry on with the life process, each of your 80 to 100 trillion cells must digest constructive food, excrete wastes, repair itself, and carry on with other essential functions every day.
Your cells will require all the known and unknown factors of nutrition!
It would be foolish of you to think, your body can function effectively just by consuming cooked foods and taking synthetic supplements.
Instead, please choose a variety of whole vitamin complexes to put into your body.
Instead of fixating on certain food groups, choose a variety of real, live, whole, and organically raised foods. It's the whole food diet and lifestyle that counts.
When eating raw foods, it is a better idea to consume a variety of foods to get a variety of whole vitamin complexes. Learning how to make shrimp ceviche can help.
Vitamin C will strongly be influenced by the amount of vitamin E and A present in your system as well as by bioflavonoids and the other naturally occurring co-factors.
Remember, complex vitamins function together, protect each other, and are all very important for your health.
Be sure to stay away from fortified foods, which are spiked with isolated and synthetic vitamins. Commonly fortified foods: Breakfast cereals, flour & breads, pasteurized milk, and pasteurized fruit juices.
However, eating raw foods like freshly squeezed orange juice gives you nutrients that are highly synergistic and interactive complexes.
Keep in mind, nutrients in foods don't work very well when separated from the whole or have their life-force removed!
Enzymes: are you depleting your life-force?
Enzymes are complex proteins that act as catalysts which are involved with almost every biochemical process that takes place in your body.
The enzyme complex harbors a protein carrier which contains a living energy. There are many names for this living energy.
Names such as life force, life energy, life principle, vital force, vitality, and nerve energy have all been used to describe this living energy.
Enzymes give off a type of radiation and this radiation is the energy released as they work. This is different from the caloric energy liberated from food.
The book, Enzyme Nutrition written by Dr. Edward Howell points out that each one of us is given a limited supply of internal enzymes at birth.
The capacity to make enzymes which is your "enzyme potential" is limited and exhaustible, which is contrary to popular belief.
Some think that their supply of enzymes is endless and won't be used up in the process of life, but this is simply not true.
Unfortunately, a great deal of your internal enzymes are wasted with the habit of cooking your foods.
Enzymes are very heat sensitive and they will vanish in a puff of smoke.
Enzymes are also wasted by consuming highly processed foods laden with chemicals, medications, eating irradiated foods, abusing alcohol, taking drugs, and other modern-day challenges.
Even exposure to excessive hot or cold weather will deplete your enzymes.
Keep in mind, enzymes operate on both chemical and biological levels.
And science can't measure or synthesize this biological or living energy.
Three classes of enzymes: 3rd class of enzymes pre-digest foods in your food-enzyme stomach.
Metabolic enzymes are what run your entire body and represent
the largest class of enzymes. There are over a thousand metabolic
enzymes to date that carry on the work of your body every day.
All of your organs and tissues are run by metabolic enzymes! They are needed in order for you to think properly.
Metabolic enzymes are needed to repair the damage in your body and to heal diseases. Metabolic enzymes take proteins, fats, and carbohydrates - and structure them into healthy bodies.
Metabolic enzymes also assist your kidneys, lungs, liver, skin, and colon with their eliminative tasks.
Good health depends on the metabolic enzymes being able to do their job and a shortage could spell disaster for your health.
Digestive enzymes are the second class of enzymes and have only three main jobs; to digest proteins, to digest carbohydrates, and to digest fats.
Your body makes about 22 different digest enzymes. Did you know most of your digestive enzymes are produced by your pancreas?
Shockingly, you will use up more of your enzyme potential producing the 22 digestive enzymes than producing hundreds of metabolic enzymes.
Food enzymes are the third class of enzymes and will only be found in raw foods. Food enzymes initiate the process of digestion in your mouth and in the upper stomach, which Dr. Howell called the food-enzyme stomach.
According to Howell, the formerly called "idle" cardiac portion of the human stomach is a non-glandular food-enzyme stomach where food enzymes help to pre-digest foods for up to an hour.
Your food will then undergo more thorough digestion with strong digestive juices that are secreted in the lower part of your stomach and small intestine.
There're numerous food enzymes you can get from eating raw foods, but only three main types.
Proteases for digesting proteins, amylases for digesting carbohydrates, and lipases for digesting fats. Many raw foods will contain more than one type of food enzyme.
Raw meat will contain a protease enzyme called cathepsin.
Cathepsin is enzyme that tenderizes meat when it's aged.
The fat found in raw meat will also contain lipase.
Bromelain is a protease enzyme found in pineapple that is a tropical fruit known to help with digestion.
Bromelain, known for its ability to break down protein chains, which helps to digest protein.
Papaya is another tropical fruit that contains a protease enzyme called papain.
Most people are familiar with eating ripe papayas.
However, the amount of papain in the fruit lowers as it ripens.
Luckily, green papayas are packed with papain.
One of the best sources of the amylase enzyme will be found in raw honey and spreading raw honey on a piece of bread for 15 minutes will help to pre-digest the bread before you even eat it.
Raw, organic, unheated, and unfiltered honey is actually a powerhouse of nutrients. It contains amino acids, B vitamins, minerals, and up to 5000 different types of enzymes.
Mango is a tropical fruit that contains a good amount of amylase, which helps break down carbohydrates into glucose and maltose.
However, green mangoes will be higher in amylase than the ripe mangoes.
Bananas are a popular tropical fruit rich in amylase and the greener bananas, which I prefer these days, will also be higher in amylase than the really ripe ones.
All fatty foods will contain lipase in their natural state. However, cooking and overly processing will destroy this precious enzyme.
A very good source of the lipase enzyme is raw milk, raw butter, and raw cream. Lipase is also found in the fat of chickens, turkeys, geese, pigs, cattle, lambs, and seals.
Lipase will also be found in coconuts, avocados, and in olives.
However, this enzyme will most likely not be found in their oils because of manufacturing process and filtering.
Lipase is found in oil-bearing seeds such as sesame seeds, flax seeds, and wheat seeds.
Soybeans and nuts also contain the enzyme lipase. Please be aware that nuts, seeds, and legumes will contain enzyme inhibitors that will need to be deactivated.
Dr. Howell was an advocate of eating raw foods such as raw cow's milk, raw butter, and raw honey.
He also recommended eating raw fruits such as fresh figs, fresh dates, avocado, mango, bananas, and grapes.
That's because of their enzyme content and because eating raw foods like these were very palatable.
The food enzyme concept of Dr. Edward Howell.
Dr. Howell taught, by eating raw foods and letting food enzymes do some of the work, this helps to conserve your internal enzymes and increases your enzyme potential.
Dr. Howell's "Food Enzyme Concept" is a new way of looking at health.
You see by eating raw foods you'll ingest food enzymes and this will result in a significant degree of digestion.
This will lower the drain on your body's enzyme potential, which is the opposite of what cooking your foods will do.
Did you know your body devotes a huge portion of its enzyme potential just to making digestive enzymes?
This can mean big trouble because it puts a big strain on the production of metabolic enzymes that your body can produce.
There is big competition between digestive and metabolic enzymes!
Cooked foods usually puts a big strain on the production of energy, which could make you feel tired after a big meal and then you'll need to reach for a stimulant.
The law of adaptive secretion of digestive enzymes.
The physiological laboratory of Northwestern University established "the law of adaptive secretion of digestive enzymes" in 1943.
It was found the amount of digestive enzymes varied with the amount of protein, fat, and carbohydrates it was called upon to digest.
- Prior to this discovery, it was assumed that enzymes were secreted in equal proportions.
The law holds that the organism values its enzymes highly and will make no more than are needed for the job.
In other words, if some of your food is pre-digested by the enzymes already found in raw foods, your body will make less concentrated amounts of the digestive enzymes.
This increases your enzyme potential and increases the enzyme energy of your metabolic enzymes whose job is to maintain your health.
Everything in your body is continually wearing out and must be replaced. This is called metabolism and it is a big part of your life. Metabolic enzymes do this work and you will need plenty of them.
Food enzymes: what happens when you cook foods?
In order to get food enzymes, one must eat raw foods. All plant and animal foods in the raw state will have enzymes.
Enzymes are one of the most important assets we possess, so you should not waste them because as we age, our enzymes become depleted.
Look at it this way, your enzyme potential can have a problem similar to your checking account - which becomes dangerously deficient if not continually replenished.
The heat used in cooking destroys all food enzymes and forces your body to produce more enzymes. This will eventually bankrupt you!
All enzymes are destroyed at a wet-heat temperature of 118 degrees F. and at a dry-heat temperature of about 150 degrees F. Oxygen is lost and your food is now literally dead!
Many don't seem to know, there will be a heavy withdrawal of enzymes to digest a primarily cooked-food meal. This is how you become enzyme-poor even at middle age.
Dr. Howell stressed that people who eat an enzyme-less diet will use up a tremendous amount of their enzyme potential in lavish secretions of the pancreas and other digestive organs.
Your glands and your major organs, which includes your brain will suffer the most from this digestive drain on your metabolic enzyme potential.
The result is a shortened lifespan, illness, and lowered resistance to stress of all types be it psychological or environmental.
Dr. Howell shows how the pancreas swells to meet the great demand for its juices while other glands also abnormally adapt, and how the brain actually shrinks on an all-cooked and over-refined diet.
Smaller brains accompanies civilization: does this coincide with a "deficient" diet?
Have you noticed we have been conditioned to equate civilization with an increase in brain size?
However, fossil skulls have been found of cavemen 50,000 to 100,000 years old in which you could put a modern human brain into and have room to spare.
In other words, cavemen had bigger brains than ours, although it is more than likely our brains are larger in the frontal lobes where the intellectual faculties are found.
Did you know Charles Darwin noted that the domesticated rabbit has a smaller brain than his wild cousin?
Donaldson, one of the first scientists that worked with the white rat in the laboratory wrote, "the brain weight or cranial capacity of the rat, guinea pig, rabbit, fox, and lion is less in the captive state than in the wild."
Why does civilization have this affect on brain size you ask?
Howell has eluded that our brains and brains of our domesticated animals have been affected by consumption of cooked and processed foods that civilization has created.
Howell stated, "When civilization took man and his domesticated animals under its umbrella, the food of all of these creatures became markedly changed."
Pottenger's cats: implications of study are vast and showed how detrimental cooked foods are to health.
Pottenger's cats was a very important study in nutrition, which showed detrimental changes occurred when cooked foods were fed to cats.
This Empirical study was started in the 1930's by Dr. Francis M. Pottenger, Jr. who was a physician.
This study involved 900 cats and lasted 10 years.
Connected to the cat study was Pottenger's interest in tuberculosis and other respiratory ailments.
At the time, Pottenger was developing adrenal gland extracts to treat these illnesses.
Coincidentally, adrenal glands contain the highest amount of vitamin C in the human body. Vitamin C is needed for the synthesis of cortisol and other adrenal hormones. I don't know if Pottenger knew this fact.
He originally used the cats for the process of standardizing the potency of the hormones in his adrenal extracts. However, Pottenger began to observe very different health outcomes in the cats when he fed them cooked versus raw meat.
This observation is what actually led to the cat study, which focused on variations of their diets.
Pottenger did this cat feeding study because he felt findings might help shine a light upon "new facts" about optimal human nutrition.
The cat study included several generations of cats and Pottenger diligently recorded his observations of their calcium and phosphorus levels, skeletal structures, etc.
Results from the cat study: cats fed a raw food diet.
The cats fed a diet of 2/3 raw meat, 1/3 raw milk, and cod liver oil showed uniformity in their sizes and in their skeletal developments.
The configuration of the female skull was different from the male skull. And each sex maintained its distinct anatomical features.
From generation to generation they maintained a regular, broad face and wide palate with plenty of room for teeth.
They were resistant to infections, to fleas, and to various other parasites, and showed no signs of allergies.
Cats on a raw food diet displayed reproductive ease and friendly behavior. Tissue tone was excellent and fur quality was good with very little shedding.
Results from the cat study: cats fed cooked foods.
Interestingly, the cats fed a diet of 2/3 cooked meat, 1/3 raw milk, and cod liver oil reproduced a heterogeneous strain of kittens - each kitten being different in size and in skeletal pattern.
There were many variations in facial and dental structures of the second and third generation of cats that were fed cooked meat.
Heart problems, respiratory illnesses, eye-sight problems, underactivity or inflammation of the thyroid gland occurred. Infections of the kidney, liver, testes, ovaries, and bladder were problems that commonly occurred.
Pregnancies and deliveries were generally more difficult with many cats dying in labor. And the mortality rate of kittens was high.
These cats had long bones which tended to increase in length and decrease in diameter, with the hind legs commonly increasing in length over forelegs. In the third generation, some of the bones became soft as rubber.
They showed more irritability and females even became dangerous to handle while males became more docile.
Vermin and intestinal parasites were a problem. Skin lesions and allergies also appeared frequently. Sadly, these cats came to suffer from most of the degenerative diseases seen in humans.
The cat study: and the implications for humans!
The implications of the Pottenger's cat study are vast and have revealed both the detriment of eating cooked foods and the power that eating raw foods can have on health.
To be clear, Dr. Pottenger never stated that a one-to-one comparison could be made between his findings in cat nutrition and findings in human nutrition.
He did say, "While no attempt will be made to correlate the changes in the animals studied with malformations found in humans, the similarity is so obvious that parallel pictures will suggest themselves."
Dr. Francis Pottenger Jr. began to investigate changes that occurred in the human anatomy over a span of four generations - starting from 1900 to 1960.
Preliminary findings revealed that dramatic changes had occurred in the anatomy of the American male and female.
The turn-of-the-century male had broad shoulders, stocky neck, and narrow hips.
A modern-day figure of a male has small and weak shoulders, a longer neck, and a broad pelvis.
The reverse appeared to be happening to the anatomy of the American female and they started losing their child-bearing hips.
Turn-of-the-century female figure had narrow shoulders and a broad pelvis.
A female figure in 1960, showed broader shoulders and narrow hips.
Similarly, the experimental studies with animals has shown a loss of secondary sexual characteristics after two or three generations on an impoverished or deficient diet.
Males started losing their heavy masculine frame and their general contour begins to resemble the female.
Females also started to lose their distinguishing build, so that both sexes approach a state of physical neutrality.
Pottenger's experimental work pointed out that all people are influenced by their preceding generations, and people can only be healthy if stock from which they came is healthy and the food they eat is adequate.
Did you notice our younger generations appear to be getting weaker?
Sadly, many children have become sick because our food supply has been progressively depleted of its nutrients like whole vitamins and enzymes from the refining, cooking, canning, pasteurization, and very destructive farming practices.
These have all contributed to a hereditary breakdown that has negatively affected the younger generations.
Pottenger's regenerating cats: put back on a diet of only raw foods.
After witnessing the degeneration of the health of cats on a cooked food diet, Pottenger decided to test the potential of the regeneration diet by putting these cats back on a raw food diet.
He found that regeneration was indeed possible, though minor health problems did persist even into the third generation.
Dr. Pottenger took the first and second generation groups of
deficient cats that were fed a cooked meat diet and returned them to a
raw meat diet or the optimum diet.
- Pottenger classified them as regenerating animals of the first and second orders.
They were originally fed cooked meat, raw milk, and cod liver oil. For this experiment the regenerating animals and their offspring were fed the optimum raw diet of raw meat, raw milk, and cod liver oil.
Dr. Pottenger did this to measure the time needed to rebuild their health to that of the normal cat group, which were fed the optimum raw food diet.
Pottenger found it required 4 generations for the first and second order to regenerate to a state of normal cat health.
Improvement to resistance of disease was noted in the second-generation of the regenerating cats.
However, allergic manifestations persisted into the 3rd generation.
In the 3rd generation of cats, skeletal and soft tissue changes were still noticeable, but to a lesser degree.
By the 4th generation of cats, most of the severe deficiency signs and symptoms disappear, but seldom completely.
An obvious conclusion could be that eating raw foods will provide raw food benefits such as the vitamin C complex and enzymes, which helps to build a strong body and allows regeneration to take place.
The raw food diet: famous raw body-builder and raw food belief system.
Armand Tanny was a famous Santa Monica beach bodybuilder known for eating raw foods. Armand had also been a competitive weightlifter from an early age and was a professional wrestler.
Armand spent several months on tour in 1947 in Hawaii and was amazed by the impressive bulk and strength of his Polynesian wrestling opponents.
- The local Polynesian wrestlers consumed an almost entirely raw diet of raw fish, meats, fruits, and vegetables.
When he came back to the mainland he was still interested in this raw food diet, but was still not convinced it was the right thing to do.
After months of research, Tanny eventually stumbled upon the work of Weston A Price.
Price was the controversial dentist who had written extensively on the diets of traditional societies.
Many of these traditional societies shared the Polynesian wrestler's preference for eating raw foods.
Now armed with Dr. Price's nutritional study, Armand shut off his stove and began his journey of eating raw foods.
Armand Tanny begins eating a raw food diet.
Armand Tanny followed an almost entirely raw food diet. Which meant he ate raw meat and would only have his milk raw.
Tanny also consumed ample amounts of raw seafood like tuna, lobster, and even raw clams that he would collect from the Santa Monica Pier in California.
Additionally, he consumed raw liver and a healthy amount of raw nuts (do keep in mind that raw nuts are harder to digest), vegetables, and fruits to round out his diet.
Within two years, Tanny substantially improved upon his already impressive physique to the extent that he won the 1949 Pro Mr. America and 1950 Pro Mr. USA competitions.
In later years, Tanny estimated that he ate between 3/4 to 1.5 lbs. of raw meat daily, an amount he believed supplied him with creatine in its purest form.
Later, he made a living managing his brother's gym chain and writing about fitness and bodybuilding for his friend Joe Weider's publications, including Muscle Power magazine
Armand Tanny remained robust for several decades until his death at the age of 90. Suggesting, that for him eating raw foods turned out to be a good thing after all.
Old school bodybuilders: many strong men ate raw foods.
Nothing gets my goat more than people that say, "milk is only for babies". I wish they had lived "back in the day" when body-builders used raw milk to build muscle.
Vincent Gironda the "Iron Guru" was an American professional bodybuilder and personal trainer whose pupils won a lot of contests. Vincent was a huge advocate of raw milk and raw cream.
He was also a big advocate for eating raw eggs and he liked eating steak tartare.
Harry Smith was a long-time gym owner, ex-pro wrestler, and Santa Monica Muscle Beach alumnus.
He stated that many of them tried to keep their eating clean, and that on a number of occasions would frequent a small deli about 1/2 block from the beach.
The deli offered freshly ground beef. Some of the guys mixed the raw beef with raw onions and a little salt/pepper. Then washed it down with raw milk.
Belief system of the raw foodist: eating raw foods is better for your health.
The raw food diet is a lifestyle promoting the consumption of un-cooked and un-processed foods. Also, high quality foods should make up a large percentage of your raw meals.
If 75 - 100% of a person's total food consumption is raw food, he or she is considered a raw foodist.
Raw foodists and many others believe that eating raw foods help prevent many forms of chronic disease.
- You have just learned that eating raw foods will give you enzymes and whole vitamin complexes, which are necessary for good health.
Raw foodists believe that the consumption of cooked foods will cause the degeneration of one's health, and have a few strong beliefs.
Strongly believe that cooked foods contain harmful toxins, which will eventually lead to health problems.
Strongly believe that cooked food is highly addictive and will have a drug-like effect on the body.
It's believed that eating raw foods such as raw milk contributes to a healthy gut microbiome due to the presence of beneficial bacteria.
Raw foodists also believe the greater the percentage of eating raw foods, the greater the raw food benefits you'll receive.
Primitive raw foodists: Eskimos did not like salt.
Eskimo is derived from an American Indian language, means "he eats it raw". Eskimos are probably the most well-known raw foodists in the world.
The primitive Eskimo were a very hardy and healthy people. And their original habits and their customs may give us valuable insights on how to achieve a higher level of health.
According to the book, Enzyme Nutrition written by Dr. Edward Howell, Eskimos abhorred adding salt (is mainly sodium chloride) to their food.
In fact, when an infrequent visitor gave them some salt as a gift, they would save and pass it along to the next white man that showed up
Interestingly, the high chloride level in their blood was something very special.
The Eskimos, using no salt, had more chloride in their blood than the white man who eats table salt freely.
It also appears, just like with consuming vitamins, it's better to consume intact minerals that were "grown" into whole foods, which creates better health.
- Instead of taking isolated minerals, which are randomly added to foods and drug-like supplements.
I think salt is misunderstood by so many people in the health movement. I believe that it'll create imbalances similar to synthetic isolated vitamin supplements.
Interestingly, the Eskimo always used the food enzyme cathepsin (a protease enzyme) of meat and fish to help with its pre-digestion.
In other words, they liked to eat their food in an autolyzed or pre-digested state, which made it easier to digest.
Autolyzed meats has undergone a process of self-digestion, where enzymes will break down the meat's proteins into simpler compounds, enhancing its flavor and nutritional value.
Very important: eat a well-balanced raw food diet!
There are many ways to do a raw food diet. Some people prefer eating raw foods like raw meats while others like to focus more on plant foods.
Some people will prefer a more low carb way of eating while others will prefer a higher carbohydrate diet.
Whichever way you decide to lean, it is still important to eat a well-balanced diet! By the way, there were no indigenous people able to stay healthy on a vegan or vegetarian diet according to Weston A. Price.
The indigenous people studied by Weston A. Price ate one or more of high quality animal foods that included raw dairy foods, eggs, seafood, and fresh meats to get the right type of protein and fats.
If you decide to get your protein and fats from nuts or seeds, you will most likely end up with many nutritional deficiencies.
I like to eat fruit, but if you eat too much fruit or carbs, this will take fat away from the nervous system and raise your blood sugar level.
Eating more healthy fats will help to calm your nerves. For you plant lovers, I'll teach you how to make coconut cream, which is great for raw desserts.
Some people choose to go on a 100% raw food diet and others consume a bit of cooked foods. But as long as you're eating raw foods in the 75% range, you are a raw foodist.
Be sure to make healthy choices when it comes to cooked foods. Cut down on food toxins like acrylamides and maybe use the following tip to help when you eat cooked foods.
Have you heard, bone broth can help with the digestion of cooked foods?
Gelatin which is found in quality bone broth can act as a supplemental hydrophilic colloid for dietary usage in combating digestive disturbances caused by consuming cooked foods.
- Heat used in cooking separates their colloids and alters their hydration capacity which interferes with the digestion process.
Raw foods consist largely of hydrophilic colloids, which are essential to the digestion process. During digestion, raw foods become gelatinous.
Eating raw foods has given me less digestive problems and can be a great experience once you learn how to effectively consume raw foods.
If I had to choose my favorite raw food, it would be A2 raw milk and all of the raw dairy products such as butter, cream, cheese, yogurt, and kefir.
You can learn how to make raw butter, which easily leads to learning how to make other great raw dairy products.
For extra protein, I eat at least two raw eggs a day and I also eat a serving of raw meat or raw seafood. Once a week, I'll eat cooked protein, which always shows me how much better eating raw foods is for my health.
I occasionally eat salad and believe in drinking green juice regularly to help remove acidity from my body. I'll show you how to make green juice that is lower in oxalates.
I truly hope you get to experience some of the raw food benefits that come from eating raw foods. You don't have to become a raw foodist overnight, just start somewhere and please eat a well-balanced diet!
- Home
- Eating Raw Foods
Resources
1. Top 18 Raw Meat Dishes in the World, Last update March 20, 2025, Tasteatlas
2. 15 Raw Meat Dishes from Around the World by Sam Dean, May 20, 2013, bon appetit
3. 28 bloody good raw beef dishes from around the world by Annie Andre, Updated January 10, 2024
4. The Real Truth About Vitamins & Anti-oxidants by Judith A. DeCava, CNC, LNC, Second Edition 2006, Selene River Press, Inc.
5. Enzyme Nutrition by Dr. Edward Howell, Avery Publishing Group Inc. Paperback January 1, 1995
6. Edward Howell, MD by Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, PHD, January 1, 2000, The Weston A Price Foundation
7. Pottenger's Cats: A Study in Nutrition by Francis M. Pottenger, Jr., MD, The Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation, Paperback June 1, 2012
8. Pottenger's Cats: Early Epigenetics and Implications for Your Health by Stephanie Cold, November 13, 2014, Price Pottenger
9. Armand Tanny and Raw Meat Bodybuilding, Published by Conor Heffernan, August 2, 2016, Physical Culture Study
10. Splendid Specimens: The History of Nutrition in Bodybuilding by Randy Roach, December 14, 2004, Weston A Price Foundation
11. Milk, Modernity and Muscles: Raw Dairy and Bodybuilding in 1960s America by Conor Heffernan, First Published August 19, 2022
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