Training & Nutrition - Life Force, Energy in Raw Foods?

Some people (Ray Jardine is one of them) prefer raw foods because they provide extra energy. In India they talk about prana in foods.

Has anyone else experimented with this?

Does freshly sqeezed juice, for example, have some kind of extra vitality or life force that is missing in older, frozen, processed, dried and powdered, cooked, 'dead' or pasteurized juices and foods?

"By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out." -Richard Dawkins

The short answer: No

The long answer: They do not understand how science works. No.

Some people (Ray Jardine is one of them) prefer raw foods because they provide extra energy. In India they talk about prana in foods.

Has anyone else experimented with this?

Does freshly sqeezed juice, for example, have some kind of extra vitality or life force that is missing in older, frozen, processed, dried and powdered, cooked, 'dead' or pasteurized juices and foods?

It depends... I went to culinary school and learned much about food preparation and cooking. I am also a licensed nutritionist (CNS) so I'm not bull****ting you.

Raw foods will contain most of the energy in its original state, this is true. Methods such as boiling will cause the cells in the veggies to break down and nutrients will leak out. However, methods such as stir frying, steaming have shown no adverse effects.

As for the orange juice, in order for you to get the same amount of energy from the juice as you would from the whole fruit, you would basically need to eat the flesh from the juicer and all the pulp, flesh contains most of the good stuff.

Hope I helped!

Fruit juice is actually harmful to the body, as it is pure sugar without any fiber to slow down the rate of absorption. Causes the same insulin spike as a soda.

Also, some veggies (and eggs, actually) must be cooked for the benefits to be realized. Cooking doesn't hurt a vegetable, but overcooking will.

There is no "life force" present in raw food except, perhaps for some living bacteria that would have been killed in the cooking process.

Though he may be a gifted athlete and innovator of outdoor equipment, Mr. Jardine has some peculiar and suspect ideas about nutrition.

Methods such as boiling will cause the cells in the veggies to break down and nutrients will leak out. However, methods such as stir frying, steaming have shown no adverse effects.

I wish I had a link for you, but I saw a study that compared the nutrient loss of various methods of food prep. Most of the methods made nearly no difference in the nutrient content. Boiling was the most destructive method, of course, but a 45 (!) minute boil only diminished some of the nutrients by 25-50%. You can infer that a nice light blanching or culinarily-appropriate boil is about as harmless as the other methods they tested. I don't know who boils their brussel sprouts for 45 (!) minutes, but I wouldn't want to eat at their house anyway. I prefer to sautee at high heat with butter, salt and pepper. Mmmm...

There are benefits to eating some thing raw, because heat can break down enzymes, micronutrients and vitamins, create glycosylation, and carcinogens from charing. But, there is no "life force" benefit.

Some people (Ray Jardine is one of them) prefer raw foods because they provide extra energy. In India they talk about prana in foods.

Has anyone else experimented with this?

Does freshly sqeezed juice, for example, have some kind of extra vitality or life force that is missing in older, frozen, processed, dried and powdered, cooked, 'dead' or pasteurized juices and foods?

The best nutrition comes from local foods grown near your area and sold fresh from the farm. Raw foods typically have more nutrients but it varies, e.g. tomatoes have more nutrition when cooked, spinach does not. The best bet is to eat more fruits and vegetables in their raw state. But don't take the raw food thing too far - some people (fanatics) try to go "all-raw" (google raw food diet if you want more info) and inevitably don't do a whole lot of good.

Older food has less nutrients than fresher food.
Frozen food is the second best option to fresh food and beats canned/packaged food most of the time.
Dried food isn't always bad - dried fruits are good as long as there's no added sugar, et cetera.
Cooked food can be better or worse than it's raw counterpart depending on the food.
Most juices you find in a store are pretty much dead for all party's concerned. Like someone else said, juice isn't very good for you unless you're drinking it during/after a workout.

As far as raw juice, yes it is good for you if you have access to a juicer and juice VEGGIES (certain things like carrots are surprisingly sweet). Best of all is the 'green smoothie', where you make a smoothie as usual but also add in spinach/lettuce/kale/whatever else green food. You keep all the fiber so less insulin spike and more nutrients.

As far as Indians talking about 'prana' in their food, that goes down to a far deeper and richer philosophy, which would be the Hindu philosophy, as well as Ayurveda medicine, which I would argue both have come to terms with things thousands of years ago that science is only beginning to examine now. Science is great and all, but like anything else it is flawed and corruptible (i.e. big food companies paying for studies to slant one way or the other).

Good lord. Meta physics in the produce department.

"By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out." -Richard Dawkins

:roflmao:

The short answer: No

The long answer: They do not understand how science works. No.

Very few posts make me laugh out loud. This one did. Well done!

Good Dawkins quote.

While 'life force' and other such crap is bogus, there are certainly benefits to eating some foods raw. There are, of course, some foods that should never be eaten raw. Try to get the life force out of raw potatoes and see how your life force reacts.

There are plenty of scientific reasons to prefer foods that have not been frozen, chemically preserved or cooked.

Heat = energy so the hotter the food the more energy. Therefore raw food has less energy.

Heat = energy so the hotter the food the more energy. Therefore raw food has less energy.

So that's why coffee gives me so much energy! :D

I don't know who boils their brussel sprouts for 45 (!) minutes.

My mother would consider that dangerously undercooked.

FWIW (significantly less than $0.02 even at current exchange rates) I did once go through a juicing phase of drinking lots of raw veggie juices. After a couple of weeks of this, a friend, unprovoked, and without me telling him I was doing this, said in a tone of surprise that I was looking healthier and younger than usual. But I got fed up with washing up the juicing machine and haven't used it in years.

Good Dawkins quote.

While 'life force' and other such crap is bogus, there are certainly benefits to eating some foods raw. There are, of course, some foods that should never be eaten raw. Try to get the life force out of raw potatoes and see how your life force reacts.

There are plenty of scientific reasons to prefer foods that have not been frozen, chemically preserved or cooked.

That will just give you flatulence-force

Good lord. Meta physics in the produce department.

I'm feeling meta sick. Does anyone know a good metaphysician?

Az