Raw status/freezing/organic produce

[Guest guest]

rawfood , " votefornader9 " <votefornader9>

wrote:

> I am reading Genfit nutrition and it states if you are truely

eating

> 100% raw that your feces and urine and other things will have no

> odor.

 

This would be the case if we lived in Nature and lived totally

naturally, but even if we eat all raw, we may get indigestion, or

incomplete digestion, if we don't combine properly, or if we don't

wait for the previous meal to digest, or if we eat when stressed or

tired or not really hungry, or if we eat something not fully ripe,

or if we eat something with a condiment our body objects to, etc. So

there are factors which can make our feces less than perfect. Urine

can become almost clear and odorless on a raw diet; yet when our

bodies are cleansing, and they can go through ever new cycles of

deeper cleansing and healing, the urine becomes the opposite, since

the body is eliminating toxins.

 

> I now know that the dates I eat are suspect because many are

> frozen or heated before being shipped and it's hard getting the

store

> personel to give me answers.

 

I am glad you mention the suspicion re food being frozen. Most

people in the raw food movement eschew cooked foods, while they

welcome frozen foods. Yet freezing destroys plants, as does cooking--

it's the extremes of temperature which kill the plants. Life can

only exist in a particular temperature band. Different plants may

have different ranges of temperature in which they can survive--

lettuce is very delicate and is definitely killed at the minimum

freezing point of 32 degrees, which is why lettuce suppliers keep

them chilled at a tightly monitored 34 degrees; whereas persimmons

thrive in wintry temperatures; and some nuts reportedly can even

survive some frozen temperatures and still germinate. But every

plant has a temperature below which they die. If you thaw out a food

that has been frozen, it is usually very mushy and lifeless, just

like cooked food.

 

Regarding dates, you may be able to order from this company. I met

one of the owners a year or two ago, and he told me a lot about

their entire operation, and it sounds pretty awesome. Here's the

info:

The Date People

Niland, CA; 760/359-3211

Over 50 varieties of organic dates. Also organic lemons. Can get

other organic foods from neighboring farmers. Ask for their

newsletter.

Living here in southern CA, I am used to fresh, raw dates being

abundant. A few dozen miles to the east of us, in the desert, the

Coachella Valley is the " date capital of the world " . Many of these

growers have retail operations as well--perhaps some of these

companies can ship to people directly, though I don't have contact

info for specific ones.

 

> Also I eat coconuts from Thialand and am

> not sure if they are irradiated or not?

 

I don't know if it's irradiation, but I've read they are cooked. I

used to eat the young Thai coconuts all the time, but have stopped

since learning they are cooked. Unfortunately, much produce that

comes from overseas is nuked or steamed or cooked in some way.

People are paranoid about microorganisms, so food from islands, for

example, is steamed. Papayas from Hawaii, mangos from Cuba, all of

those are steamed. I usually stick to papayas and mangos from

Mexico, which are raw, as far as I've been able to ascertain.

 

> I also eat avocadoes that are

> commercial(not organic).

 

I always try to get organic food whenever possible, but sometimes

it's prohibitively expensive for me. I often get organic avocados

from the local farmer's market, which incidentally are far more

delicious and ripen much more evenly, than the heavily

commercialized ones. But I would not worry about avocados being

organic. Avocados are expensive enough as it is. And they are not

bothered by insects, so the trees are not sprayed.

 

While organic is always best, some fruits are more crucial if not

organic, than others. For example, apparently the most heavily

sprayed fruit is strawberries, by far. So I try to get those always

from the farmer's market. Also grapes are often very pesticided, and

it's best to get them organic or at least unsprayed. Many fruits

have thick skins, so even if they are sprayed, the fruit inside

remains relatively intact, such as melons, and perhaps citrus. I've

been told by produce managers that it's not as crucial to get

bananas organic either, since the relatively thick skin keeps the

bananas inside from the sprays--the non organic bananas are

apparently heavily sprayed, so you don't want to eat the skin. I do

try to get organic bananas whenever possible, they even taste much

better, ripen more evenly.

 

Again, I realize there's a huge advantage here in southern CA--tons

of strawberries grown just north of us, and widely available year-

round at the farmer's markets; dates grown just east of us, and

available at the farmer's markets, even undried when in season;

avocados most of the year, grown just south of us (and avocado trees

all over my neighborhood, I've got one growing too--and I've just

acquired a fruiting banana tree about which I'm very excited);

mangos and papayas from just across the border in Mexico; such a

cornucopia. And of course there are always fruits in season all year

long, so the challenge is to get the right fruit at the right time

and the best price. I will post an organic resource guide in a

separate message.

 

Zsuzsa