Amalgam fillings & Grains(thanks for menstration info)

[Guest guest]

Hi Zsuzsa, thank you for sharing this information on raw foods and

menstruation. We're in another raw food group together, and I

especially appreciate the fact that you post follow-up references

which support your statements so that others can read in more detail.

This makes it easier for each individual to make an informed

decision. The following two questions are somewhat off topic but I'm

interested in reading your opinions and that of others. How do you

feel about grains? Many believe grains should not be eaten raw,

sprouted, or otherwise. Also, what do you think about amalgam

(mercury) fillings? If someone has amalgam fillings, can the raw food

lifestyle help to decrease possible damage or unhealthy symptoms

that " could " occur? Or do you feel it is absolutely necessary to have

them removed eventually? Thanks Lili

[Guest guest]

Hi Lili,

 

Thank you for your kind words. And thank you to everyone else who

responded to my post about menstruation. As usual, I go against the

grain, so to speak. And with that, I will go right to the question

about grains.

 

We humans are primates, hence we are frugivores. Our natural foods

are fruits, nuts/edible seeds, and leafy greens/veggies. Grains are

seeds; however, they are not edible in the form they come in in

Nature.

 

Grains are not necessary, nor beneficial for humans. They are not

natural for us to eat, as evidenced by the fact that we cannot eat

them in their natural state, but must soak, sprout or cook them in

order to make these hard indigestible pellets digestible. Grains are

food for birds. A bird has an anatomical pouchlike organ called a

crop, which is an enlarged portion of their throat which is called a

gullet, in which grains and other foods are held and partially

digested by maceration, which is a soaking in liquid which their

body produces for this purpose. Grains may also be food for rodents,

who have enormously strong teeth and some amazing digestive systems--

some of them can literally eat anything--paper, walls, plastic, etc.

But that is not us. We have very specialized and sensitive bodies

and digestive systems. And grains are simply not part of our natural

food. Besides, if we were to find our food in Nature, we'd probably

find a lot more appetizing things to eat than to look for some

teensy hard pellet hidden in a plant, to eat.

 

If we want to feed the world, we need to re-forest the planet with

trees, which provide us with our natural food and replenish our

soil, not to mention clean our air. The deforestation and soil

erosion, along with the enormous amounts of land used to grow so

little food, caused by agriculture will surely result in eventual

starvation for the human population. And of course starvation also

for any animal population.

 

Dr. Douglas Graham has written a book called " Grain Damage " which

will probably answer some questions, and give information on why

grains are harmful. A quote from

http://www.maxpages.com/causeofhealth:

 

Grain Damage. This book is best summed up by Rudy Carti, World

Record Holder, 151,000 abdominal crunches in 48 hours: " Once freed

from the starch habit, I completely outperformed myself " .

 

And from http://maxpages.com/causeofhealth/Grain_Damage:

 

Rethinking the High Starch Diet

What professionals say about Dr. Grahams book " Grain Damage "

** " Having had extensive experience working with hundreds of food

addicts, I know this to be the first and only publication that

exposes the real physiological cause of eating disorders. It belongs

on the shelf of every health care professional. "

-- Prof. Rozalind Gruben, AHSI, RSA

 

** " Grains are a recent addition to our diet, one that has not

served us well. They seem to have an addictive quality. After

working with people for many years I have found that they thrive

better on a grain free diet. It was only by eliminating grains

completely from my diet that I was able to resolve my chronic

allergy problems. "

-- Jeff Novick, M.S., R.D., L.D., Director of Nutrition, Pritikin

Longevity Center, Florida

 

** " As Dr. Graham has shown, grain crops are not a natural food for

humans...grain farming has stripped the fertile Earth of its

minerals. Grain crops are processed, cooked, eaten, and eliminated

into the sewers and waterways of civilization. Erosion wears down

unstable grain fields washing minerals away. Jungles are turned into

rice paddies. One way or the other the soil minerals end up at the

bottom of the ocean. Your choice to go " against the grain " radically

helps the planet. "

-- David Wolfe, author, " Nature's First Law: The Raw-Food Diet "

 

" Grain Damage " is a True Eye-Opener

Here is a wake-up call if ever there was one. Absolutely

compelling.

 

I think there is certainly a reason that grains are generally

cooked, and have always been cooked in all cultures that I know of.

Not that all food that has been cooked needs to be but I think

there's a reason that grains are. As far as I know, they come rock

hard even in Nature, though I also have no firsthand experience, I

am going by what I've read. And we certainly can't find raw grains

that are not rock hard in the stores. Rolled oats or other rolled

grains are cooked by the heat of the rollers, that is why they are

soft and able to be eaten as they are found in the stores.

 

Dr. Edward Howell says: " When birds, for instance, swallow seeds or

grains, these grains lie in the crop for 8 to 12 hours. As they sit,

they absorb moisture, swell up and begin to germinate. During

germination, enzymes are formed which do the work of digesting the

seeds and grains. "

 

If you are eating germinated foods, or sprouts, you're no longer

eating seeds, you're eating a plant. So there again, it goes to show

that the grain seeds are inedible since they have to be germinated

or sprouted into plants first.

 

It's an interesting thing to consider, that if some seeds are our

natural food, then wouldn't all seeds be? As far as I know, all nuts

are our natural food, and all fruits are too, though certain fruits

like olives may be questionable. Of course, not all veggies are

natural foods for us, yet seeds are more in the class of the fruits

and nuts, so theoretically, it would seem like all seeds are our

natural food. Yet apparently that's not the case. One clue is that

grains are protein and starches, rather than protein and fat like

nuts and edible seeds. And their indigestibility, and indeed their

very unmasticability, in their natural state is the most important

criterion.

 

Dr. Graham's book " Grain Damage " is available on

http://www.doctorgraham.cc/.

I would highly recommend a couple of books, each of which contains

an entire chapter on grains and discusses them in depth, from a raw

Hygienist perspective. I invite anyone who is interesting in finding

out what our true dietary is to read them. The first is " The Science

and Fine Art of Food and Nutrition " by Dr. Herbert Shelton. And the

other is " The Natural Food of Man " by Hereward Carrington. You may

be able to find them through a library or some other source, but

they can definitely be purchased, perhaps some used copies even--

search under the authors' names, and you'll also find other

fascinating and very informative books by these authors--at:

http://www.amazon.com, http://www.abebooks.com, and

http://www.healthresearchbooks.com.

 

Most " foods " , even as found in Nature, are not compatible with our

anatomy. Some animals' diets are very specialized, some are very

generalized. Our diets are quite specialized. Almost every " food "

out there is natural to some creature, but there is an astronomical

variety of animals in the world (or were until humans began to

extinct them on such a huge scale), and most animals had to

specialize in order to find a dietary for which there was so much

competition, to find their niche in order to try to ensure

availability of food for them. But food which we have to soak,

sprout, ferment, grind, cook, freeze, etc., in order to make it

edible, something which no other animal does, and which we would not

do in Nature--we would not even have the utensils to do it--is not

and cannot be our natural food, since natural food means edible and

optimal the way it comes in Nature.

 

Now, perhaps a grain seed is soft when it is still in the plant, so

let's assume that it's soft, chewable. (Could that mean that the

seed is not yet mature, just as are young beans and peas, as well as

young corn, and young squash, which we can eat young?} Does it look

appetizing, smell good? Does it pass the taste test? Does it digest

well in our bodies? If so, then we could agree that it is compatible

with our bodies at that point, as are young beans and peas, as well

as young corn, and young squash, before these foods become mature,

and consequently hard and utterly indigestible in their natural

state at that point.

 

However, they apparently quickly become hard and likely it is at

that point that they convert to starch, which we can't digest, and

with grains cannot even masticate--hence all the cooking, soaking

and sprouting of grains. At that point they are completely

indigestible in their natural state. It seems to me that the above

examples I gave become indigestible also due to turning to starch at

maturity: corn and squash become starches, and beans and peas become

protein and fat and starches, which wreak such havoc on people's

digestive systems as a result of their near impossibility to digest,

not only because of the sugars turning to starch, but also because

they contain the disastrous combination of protein, fat, and starch

together. Grains are not only starch, but also high protein, a very

bad combination. Fat, as is found in nuts and other edible seeds,

along with protein, is not so much of a problem in combination,

since fats digest in the liver and so are not too problematic

naturally in nuts and edible seeds. However, the combination of

starch and protein is very problematic, since the fluids necessary

for their digestion cancel each other out effectively, and are

completely at odds with each other:

 

Starch digestion begins in the mouth, mastication resulting in the

coating of the starch food with ptyalin, the salivary form of

amylase, which is an alkaline medium. The ptyalin begins its

digestion of the starch in the mouth and completes the digestion of

the starch in the stomach. This would work fine if the food

consisted of only starch. However, the protein in grain is digested

in the stomach by hydrochloric acid (HCl), which the stomach

produces when there is a presence of protein in the stomach. HCl is

of course an acid medium, and a very caustic substance (which it

needs to be in order to break down protein), which destroys the

ptyalin. Conversely, the presence of the ptyalin inactivates the

HCl. So the digestion is greatly impaired. This is why sprouting and

soaking " make " grains and other starchy foods edible. The process of

germination that begins with the soaking/sprouting process turns the

grain seed into a plant, " releasing the enzyme inhibitors " , the

resultant chemical changes " pre-digesting " the grain so it is no

longer a seed.

Starches are very complex carbohydrates (complex sugars),

polysaccharides, and they can be broken down partially by our

salivary ptyalin, but this substance is weak in humans. We are not

meant to break down tough starches. We are eaters of fruit--the

sugars in unripe fruit are complex and not ready for optimal

digestion. When fruit is ripe, the starches have turned to

monosaccharides, or simple sugars, and are easy for us to digest,

and in fact the optimal food for us. We can also digest some

vegetables that are not overly starchy, though the leafy greens are

the least problematic for us--even so, we cannot digest the

cellulose in them.

 

So for humans to eat starches, they need to be pre-digested, the

complex sugars need to be broken down into simple sugars. That is

done either by heat, as in cooking; or sometimes by cold, as in

freezing; these methods destroy the molecular bonds. Apparently

starches are not fermentable, which means that bacteria cannot

digest them either, so soaking does not make them digestible for

humans. Legumes and starches such as old corn or squash are not made

digestible by soaking.

 

Grains, which have high starch content, are therefore not digested

by soaking. Instead, being seeds, they are germinated by soaking—

they undergo a chemical change, turning them into plants. Soaking

seeds, including nuts, begins a germination process which catalyzes

the conversion of proteins into amino acids, and carbohydrates into

glucose, thereby also forming protective toxins in the newly formed

plant. While it may make them more easily digestible, these are now

baby plants. In the chemical change of the germination process,

powerful toxins are formed in the infant plant to protect itself

from being eaten. So this process of manipulating the chemistry of a

food to make it edible results in a Pandora's box. Best to not

tamper with foods--if they're inedible, indigestible in their

natural form, there's a reason for it--we were not meant to eat it.

There are so many foods that are so wonderfully perfect for us in

their natural form, why eat something that is so problematic? I

would therefore not soak nuts or seeds. Soaked, germinated seeds are

plants, no longer seeds—if one wishes to eat plants, it's a much

better idea to eat more mature plants in which the toxins are

weaker.

 

The " solution " to making indigestibles digestible without cooking,

the " soak your nuts and seeds " mantra, seems to be a totally new and

arbitrary idea of the modern raw food movement, without taking into

consideration the possible long term and health consequences of

setting off chemical changes in foods, not to mention the

harmfulness of the bacterial wastes that are mostly what's left of

the food after leaving it out to decay in stagnating water. I don't

find any of this appetizing and it certainly doesn't pass my taste

or sniff test, nor does the slime on the foods that develops,

requiring constant rinsing.

 

Our natural dietary is that which we can eat the way it comes in

Nature and which tastes wonderful to us the way it comes: fruits,

leafy greens, nuts, edible seeds.

 

Whew! That was a long piece. I'll be much more brief about amalgams.

No question they're problematic. However, I have very limited

information about them. I have a few very old amalgam fillings in my

mouth which I have hoped would eventually fall out, but no such

luck. I would love to have them taken out, but two factors prevent

me. Number one is money, it is costly to have them removed, and I

simply do not have the financial means currently to have it done.

The other consideration I have about it, and this is why I had

hesitated in the past to have them removed, is that in order to

remove the filling, more of the tooth itself must be whittled off,

which I was not willing to have done, and so have lived with the

amalgams. I have been under the impression that they don't leak too

much after so many years, but I don't know. I do feel that raw vegan

eating allows our bodies to be stronger and healthier, thereby

mitigating the damage from amalgams as well as other sources. But

ideally of course I would like to be free of them.

 

Zsuzsa

 

 

rawfood , " Lili " <ladyschaumburg> wrote:

> Hi Zsuzsa, thank you for sharing this information on raw foods and

> menstruation. We're in another raw food group together, and I

> especially appreciate the fact that you post follow-up references

> which support your statements so that others can read in more

detail.

> This makes it easier for each individual to make an informed

> decision. The following two questions are somewhat off topic but

I'm

> interested in reading your opinions and that of others. How do you

> feel about grains? Many believe grains should not be eaten raw,

> sprouted, or otherwise. Also, what do you think about amalgam

> (mercury) fillings? If someone has amalgam fillings, can the raw

food

> lifestyle help to decrease possible damage or unhealthy symptoms

> that " could " occur? Or do you feel it is absolutely necessary to

have

> them removed eventually? Thanks Lili

[Guest guest]

I'am eating sprouted grains for years now and feel stronger and

healthier then ever.

Does the end result count?

Sprouted grains are a good and very inexpensive food.

Alex

 

southladogs wrote:

 

>Hi Lili,

>

>Thank

>

>

>