Posts Tagged ‘raw food’

Assessing the Energy of Foods

February 3rd, 2010

One of the most interesting topics in nutrition, at least for me, is the concept of food energy.

What do we mean by the energy of foods?

Well, according to food labels, it would strictly reflect the number of calories in a food. But a food that packs 500 calories and comes in a box doesn’t really strike me as being very energizing.

In fact, I challenge you to eat a packaged food, regardless of how many calories it contains, and then observe how you feel afterwards.

If you feel energetic, then you’re definitely 1 in a million. But if you’re like most people, then you’ll probably experience a drop in energy – not an energy boost.

I was thinking about this the other week after I experimented with eating a “healthy” organic cereal made with spelt, flax, hemp seeds, granola, and some other seemingly healthy ingredients.

The first thing I noticed upon finishing the cereal was that I was slightly irritated. I was also tired. Definitely not energetic.

Now, this may have been due to an intolerance to some of the grains in the cereal but I also suspect that because this wasn’t a raw food, which would be packed with live energy, my body would have to expend extra energy to digest and assimilate it.

So eventhough the cereal had about 400 calories for that serving size, those calories DID NOT energize me.

So before we continue, let’s clear something up…

More calories doesn’t equal having more energy although it does mean more energy from a calorie perspective.

Obviously, the better option would be to eat whole foods that actually provide a lot of energy (not calories) without providing high amounts of calories.

So what are those foods?

Well, very simply, they are raw living foods. Specifically, fruits and vegetables.

To give you an example of what I mean have a look at the following 2 kirlian photographs …

This first photograph is of organic broccoli (a very healthy food) that has just been steamed for 2 minutes – not a long time. Notice the energy or “life force” emanating from it. This aura is what kirlian photography is able to capture. It’s truly amazing!

cookedbrocolli_000

Now look at this photograph.

raworganicbrocolli_000

What’s the first thing you notice?

Perhaps, a much greater energy field surrounding the broccoli? Well, this is because this broccoli has not been steamed. This time it is truly alive. It is raw and has not been heated. Thus, it still preserves it’s inherent life force.

Calories vs. Life Force

When looking for foods (or a diet) that will energize you this concept of calories vs. life force is a helpful one.

Sure packaged foods state that they contain a certain number of calories (a measure of energy) but they do radiate the kind of life force that we see with raw foods? Not at all.

When foods are heated or processed they essentially die.

So if you want more energy, wouldn’t it make sense to eat foods that are alive? That carry a natural life energy that your body can benefit from?

I think so.

And that’s what Eating for Energy is all about.

That’s really what eating for a healthy and vital life is all about.

It’s too bad that our current food supply had taken so many of us so far astray.

But you can get back on track…

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Posted in Raw Foods

Tags: 1 In A Million alive Broccoli Energy Boost Extra Energy flax Food Calories Food Energy Food Labels Fruits And Vegetables Granola Healthy Food Healthy Ingredients How Many Calories Interesting Topics Kirlian Photographs life force Live Energy live foods Organic Cereal raw food Serving Size whole foods

Eating for Energy Review – 5 New Successes

January 28th, 2010

Here are 5 recent Eating for Energy reviews from some of our happy readers…

“Yuri, your book really helped me understand WHY I was doing some of what I had decided to do. That made it a lot easier to follow through! Also, I like the balance of your advice, including that one doesn’t have to follow 100% of the diet 100% of the time. Balance is very important, imo!

Thanks so much for your help Yuri!”

- Pamela Houck

“The numerous healthy and delicious recipies in Eating for Energy have greatly helped me get in better shape. I exercise often, but found it difficult to find enough healthy food options to add to my diet until I consulted Eating for Energy. Also, learning about digestive enzymes and probiotics was helpful. I never used to take digestive enzymes or probiotics, but now I take probiotics every night and digestive enzymes after heavy meals. I’ve noticed a great improvement in my digestion and consistency in my bowel movements. The smoothie recipies are my favorite part of the book. I found that smoothies are the best way for me to incorporate vegetables into my diet, which I rarely used to do. Thanks for all the great information Yuri.”

- Nehal Shah

“One thing I really love is to see you have organized the 12 weeks meal plans for someone like me who want to change to eat raw food with lot of energy….this made me very happy customer because I had challenge in putting the meals together for each week. This is a good starting basic foundation for me to develop a way of Eating for Energy until I learn to do on my own meal plan. I love to see the layout for each week meals that save me time to organize them…. and I love the way the food taste that make my body happy especially Mariana Sauce for Zucchini as pasta. The things you have written made perfect sense about the relationship with food and body actually save my time to figure out in term of which food to buy healthy food. Thank you Yuri! You know your stuff! : )

- Robyn Brooks

“Love the recipies , still working towards my 80 percent raw diet, but already over all big improvement, even my family notice the leaness of my body. Noticable skin approvement, not bad for a 48 yr old. Thumbs up.”

- Sam Farmer

“Hi Yuri, the facts speak for themselves! Since purchasing Eating for Energy less than 2 months ago I have subscribed to your program and not only lost 5 kgs but I am now at my lowest weight in 20 years and have the energy levels of a 20 yo!! (I’m 41).

The great thing about Eating for Energy is that the recipes are so simple and incredibly tasty – I certainly don’t feel like I am missing out on any food experiences. In fact, I am appreciating the flavours in my food more than ever!

I’d always known which foods I should be eating more of but you’ve made it easy for me to finally do it through the variety of recipes and food ideas in your book.

Thank you so much Yuri – my family and I feel like we owe you so much! Best regards,”

- Geraint Gearon
Bangkok, Thailand

=> CLICK HERE TO GRAB YOUR COPY

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Posted in Uncategorized

Tags: 80 percent Basic Foundation bowel movements Consistency Delicious Recipies digestion digestive enzymes eating for energy Food Options Food Taste Happy Customer Healthy Food Meal Plan meal plans Nehal Shah Perfect Sense probiotics raw diet raw food review reviews smoothie Time Balance Yuri Zucchini

This Week’s Eating for Energy Testimonials

November 24th, 2009

This is a good starting basic foundation for me to develop a way of Eating for Energy until I learn to do on my own meal plan. I love to see the layout for each week meals that save me time to organize them…. and I love the way the food tastes that makes my body so happy, especially Marinara Sauce for Zucchini as pasta. The things you have written made perfect sense about the relationship with food and body actually save my time to figure out in term of which food to buy healthy food. Thank you Yuri! You know your stuff!”

- Robyn Brooks

“The numerous healthy and delicious recipes in Eating for Energy have greatly helped me get in better shape. I exercise often, but found it difficult to find enough healthy food options to add to my diet until I consulted Eating for Energy.

Also, learning about digestive enzymes and probiotics was helpful. I never used to take digestive enzymes or probiotics, but now I take probiotics every night and digestive enzymes after heavy meals. I’ve noticed a great improvement in my digestion and consistency in my bowel movements. The smoothie recipies are my favorite part of the book. I found that smoothies are the best way for me to incorporate vegetables into my diet, which I rarely used to do. Thanks for all the great information Yuri.”

- Nehal Shah

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Posted in Uncategorized

Tags: bowel movements digestive enzymes eating for energy food healthy meal plans probiotics raw food recipes smoothie testimonials

3 Surefire Ways to Get More Fruits and Vegetables Into Your Diet

November 19th, 2009

iStock_000002815321Small I was doing an interview yesterday and one of the topics that came up was about how does someone get more fruits and vegetables into their diet.

Seems like a pretty obvious answer but the difficulty is that most people simply don’t get enough fruits and vegetables in their diet. I believe that most North Americans get an average of 1.5 servings per day. That’s pretty insane considering that the recommended daily intake is between 5-10 servings.

With that in mind, here are 3 surefire ways to help you at least double the number of plant-based foods you consume each day.

1. Adopt a Mono Meal Mindset

I’m not saying that you need to follow a raw food mono meal diet (although you would greatly benefit from doing so) but rather I’m suggesting that you adopt the practice of eating several of one type of food at a time.

For instance, if you are used to eating one apple as a snack, then you might as well eat 2 or 3 (or more). There’s no down side to eating too many fruits and vegetables.

So the idea with mono meals is to eat any particular fruit or vegetable to the point of satiation. Since these foods are lower in calories, you’ll be able to eat more of them before you get full.

Mono meals also facilitate digestion because you are eating simply and your digestive system doesn’t have to work over time breaking down complex food combinations.

2. Liquify Your Meals

I love smoothies. They are such an easy and convenient way of getting more fruits and veggies into your body. There are so many different smoothie recipes that you can enjoy and the beauty is that any given one can almost provide your entire fruit and vegetables requirements for a single day.

For instance, I often like to make this smoothie:

1 apple
1 banana
2 handfuls of spinach
Juice of 1 lime
1 tbsp spirulina (optional)
2 cups water

As you can see, this smoothie recipe easily gives me 4-5 servings in just 500 ml of easy to digest, delicious smoothie action.

Smoothies are convenient because you can blend everything up and take it with you on the go. Instead of grabbing that morning coffee, you can easily make a nutrient-packed smoothie and get your day started right.

3. Add Variety to Your Diet

I think a lot of people don’t get enough fruits and vegetables simply because they don’t like the taste or find them boring. That’s obviously a result of a polluted diet full of processed foods that have destroyed the palette.

Besides getting rid of such garbage foods, one of way of enjoying “good” food is to try new things.

The next time you go shopping try adding a new fruit or vegetable into your basket. Even if it’s something you’ve never tried before don’t worry – you’ll be prompted to seek out ways to enjoy by looking for yummy recipes, etc…

And you never know…you might fall in love with some new foods. This is how I fell in love with coconuts, mangosteens, durians, and many other delicious fruit.

2 comments »

Posted in General Nutrition

Tags: diet durian fruit fruits mangosteen meal mono meals raw food recipe smoothie recipes smoothies vegetables

Digestive Enzymes for Better Digestion

October 15th, 2009

Digestion is perhaps the most important function our body performs. Obviously, that’s up for debate but the truth of the matter is that faulty digestion is where most health problems begin.

Think of allergies, auto-immune diseases, candidiasis, constipation, eczema, asthma, and many more.

All of these problems (and tons of others) can be caused and/or attributed to bad digestion.

Bring in the Enzymes…

Our body produces 2 different kinds of enzymes: digestive and metabolic.

Metabolic enzymes are used in every single reaction in the body outside of digestion. These are also critical for helping to breakdown immune complexes and dead cells, and helping to rebuild new tissue.

Digestive enzymes are produced within the digestive tract and are used exclusively to assist in the breakdown of food.

The problem with digestive enzymes is that we only have a limited number of them.

That’s where the importance of eating more raw foods come into play. Raw foods are packed with food enzymes (the 3rd category of enzymes). These enzymes are inherent in every single living food and are there to help the digestion of that given food.

If you eat a raw apple, it’s inherent food enzymes will pretty much take care of the digestive process. However, cook that apple above 118 degrees fahrenheit and you can kiss those food enzymes goodbye.

When we eat food that no longer contains “food enzymes” our body is forced to expend more of its limited supply of digestive enzymes to break down the food.

Over time, this can become a problem as our digestive system weakens and digestion becomes compromised.

Digestive Support Nutrients

So we know that we need to support our digestive system by eating a greater proportion of living foods since they are enzyme-rich.

But what do you do if you occasionally eat cooked foods?

One thing I would highly recommend is to supplement with some digestive aids like digestive enzymes and hydrochloric acid.

In general, you want to choose a digestive enzyme that covers a full spectrum of enzymes. You’ll see the suffix -ase on nearly all enzymes. For instance, maltase digests the sugar maltose. Lactase breaks down lactose. And so on.

However, there are other enzymes that do not end with -ase such as chymotrypsin, pepsin, trypsin, and pancreatin.

I personally use a digestive enzyme at any meal in which the foods are cooked. Since I understand the importance of proper digestion, as well as the fact that I have an underactive stomach (as do most people), I definitely feel that my digestion is much improved with the use of supplemental digestive enzymes.

Hydrochloric acid (HCl) is another digestive aid I use anytime I eat cooked foods, and in many cases raw foods as well.

HCl is naturally produced and secreted by the parietal cells in the lining of our stomach in response to the ingestion of fat or protein. However, when we eat more frequently than required by the body or over-consume fats or proteins, acid production begins to decrease.

And decreased HCl production can lead to faulty digestion, with symptoms like gas, belching, bloating, discomfort after meals, fatigue after meals, and excessive fullness.

As I just mentioned, most people have an underactive stomach. This means that their stomach does not produce sufficient HCl to properly digest their foods.

For this reason, I highly recommend taking supplementary HCl with your meals.

The only contraindication to using digestive enzymes and HCl is if you have an ulcer or other type of gastric inflammation as too much extra stomach acid may further irritate the situation.

HCl is primarily available as betaine hydrochloride. You can take one or more capsules before, during, and after your meals to assist your stomach in producing enough acid.

The combination of digestive enzyme and HCl supplementation will not only help you digest your foods better but they will also improve your energy levels, help slow the aging process, and prevent many chronic degenerative diseases from developing.

It’s very powerful stuff!