Juicing question [chewing, food selection, food combining, greens]

[Guest guest]

Greetings, Carl, and thank you so much for your kind question!

 

I am not " against " juicing. I find that I enjoy life more fully when I focus

upon what I am, rather than anything I am " against " . I have learned to live

more peacefully than I once could even have conceived.

 

What I am " for " here is consumption of whole foods. And I am " for " living in

harmony with Nature's design to whatever degree each of us can.

 

Applying these two ideas to your question, I realize that for us humans,

chewing is a natural and integral part of the digestive process. When we

chew, we grind our food to the degree needed for the rest of our digestive

system to process it efficiently ... not hyperefficiently, just efficiently.

And we signal our entire system about what is coming down the pipe, so that

the rest of our system can begin to prepare before the food reaches the

stomach.

 

I find that I can chew certain foods enjoyably and with ease. These foods

include most fruits and tender greens. In contrast, I find it more difficult

to chew some of the " tougher " or more " bitter " tasting greens, the former

simply because I cannot ever seem to grind them up properly, the latter

because holding that bitter taste in my mouth for any length of time feels

.... well, distasteful. When a particular green is made substantially of

tough fiber, I find that I cannot really chew them ... so I choose not to

regard them as food for me, other than as an occasional " treat " when someone

else makes some recipe and I try a bit, for personal/social reasons.

 

Juicing results in a fractional food (removes the fiber and many other

nutrients). Blending retains the fiber and nutrients (the COMPONENTS of the

whole food), but still pulverizes the food beyond anything I would ever

accomplish by chewing (beyond what the lower digestive tract anticipates).

Also, blending whips considerable air into the food, subjecting the vastly

increases surface area to oxidation at an accelerated rate.

 

And both juicing and blending bypass the biologically normal act of chewing.

 

 

There is also issues involving food selection and food combining. I find

that many people juice and blend in order to camouflage the awful taste

and/or texture of some food they have been taught that they " need " . This is

akin to mixing cod liver oil in something sweet, to get a child to swallow

the stuff.

 

In contrast, when I eat one item at a time ... at least as I acquaint myself

with each food ... I find that I can easily and readily distinguish those

items that are rather obviously food for some other species but not for me.

For example, I eat tender greens, but I eat little of what most people would

consider " bitter greens " . I eat a little ... and only a little. Why? At

times they seem to taste good ON THEIR OWN ... but not most of the time.

 

For each of us, on our own personal path of health, there are many

opportunities to get to know ourselves and Nature in ways we have never

experienced before. I find that experiencing things one at a time adds

considerably to this learning adventure.

 

Best to all,

Elchanan

 

PS: I publish most of my posts in the PathOfHealth Group.

 

_____

 

rawfood [rawfood ] On Behalf Of

carlpuglisi

Friday, May 11, 2007 5:30 PM

rawfood

[Raw Food] Juicing question

 

 

Hello Elchanan, I've noticed you mention recently that you're not too into

juicing.

kinda discouraged to hear this since i do juicing every other day and green

smoothies etc.

 

are you saying this because your assuming many are juicing sweeter veggies,

carrots, etc.?

 

I do mostly greens; collards, celery, kale, dandelion, etc.

 

i also eat alot of salads, 'spring mix', 'herb mix', arugula, etc.

from the local grocery stores. (getting ample fiber)

 

can you elaborate slightly more on this?

thanks, and thanks for sharing all of your knowledge in general!

~ Carl

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