He’s not vegetarian, vegan, or raw, however Jamie Oliver advocates something extremely important. He is campaigning and calling attention to the unhealthy plight of school meals in the American school system. Jamie is no stranger to fighting for healthy meal for school systems. He began campaigning in his native country, England, to ban the junk in British schools and get kids eating fresh, tasty nutritious food.

Watching this video reminds me that there is plenty of resistance simply toward the idea of healthy eating. Children depend on and learn from us. They are the future. If these children are fed devalued junk “food”, and as a result are undernourished and sickly, what will their future be as the next generation of a nation of people? Imagine.

Photography and Text by Omid Jaffai

With the environment degrading more and more each day to overuse and genetic engineering tampering with our food supply and future, it is no wonder raw food is becoming a simple conscious choice in every day society. When we take the time to separate our emotions (a systematic interaction of neurons channeling and mixing of our memories, imaginations and the complexities of fibers) we end up feeding our bodies according to the way we feel, and thus our chemistry becomes accustomed to these types of nutritional mixologies and the result is outstanding at times. This is when the dangerous junction is formed that results in the designing and building of our future consciousness not only as an individual, but also as a mass.

Before I get carried away with the concepts of neuron psychology mixed with social reformisms, I would like to concentrate and simply break down some of the above views or concept into simple explanations in order to give you, the reader, a glimpse to the way I view the misinterpretations of simple wholesome eating and the misinterpretation of our feelings which results in the way we end up living our lives.

What is Biochemistry?

Biochemistry is basically the study of the chemical reactions of organisms-most specifically cellular activity within living organisms. Biochemistry deals with how the cells within the human body grow and function. What we eat affects our cellular activity or biochemistry.

Biochemistry and Our Foods within the Societies

Due to the increased threat of poverty, overconsumption, and safety risks in our food supply; more and more food manufacturers and mass crop farmers are depending upon genetic engineering and modification to produce more food cheaper, quicker, and ideally more qualitatively. The problem with these genetically modified crops and foods-though seemingly ideal for a variety of positive services that they provide-is how these foods are being modified or altered to provide these global solutions to the consumers demands. Not to mention making many pockets richer while putting many lives at risk.

It is through the new world of bioengineering that more than 60-70% of the foods we consume on a daily basis have been modified with genetically modified organisms. This figure is not my own, it is a fact which I am sure has been edited for a smooth get away! In animals, we see our livestock fed bioengineered feed and subject to genetic cloning. In plants, we find that most all-live crops are being spliced with chemically created organisms. Even if this is ok in some illogical way, there is no real research about the short and long-term biochemical effects that genetically modified organisms have on our bodies.

Studies are inconclusive in regards to the effects of genetically modified organisms on our bodies because it is a relatively new science. The FDA cannot approve any GMO altered food despite the fact that they make up so much of our present food supply-not to mention that our dependence upon GMO-produced foods increases more and more each day.

GMOs in Relation to Raw Foods or Any Foods

Like most raw foodists, you probably have made this life change for the overall bodily health that it serves by promoting enzyme efficiency and of course slowing down the degenerative motives. So, in keeping with only ingesting the purest of untouched fruits and vegetables, you probably opt for only organic foods. Unfortunately, this is not enough, beside the dramatic change within our ecosystem; gmo foods are not regulated and can contain any combination of natural and unnatural bioengineering ingredients.

Consequently, if you depend much more on fruits and vegetables, you are subjecting yourself to a higher percentage of possible allergies, diseases, and health conditions. This is why it is so crucial to ensure you know exactly what goes into the biochemistry of your foods, just like the way you should be with what goes into your body and it’s reaction to your emotions, actions, and future outcomes that resonates your destiny in simply feeling yourself. The best way, or should I say the safest way and the only way is to do so by buying only organic fruits, veggies, nuts & seeds, condiments, oils, etc., marked GMO-free or something of the like. Of course growing your own products is the surest way to go! But even still remember, without the label-the chances of it containing any kind of combination of ingredients is almost 100% positive that it is-in fact-genetically altered. Even though sometimes the label can be misusing!

Let’s face it: the world-unfortunately-is a much different place now than it once was. With the introduction of bioengineering into the world, we now have the ability to clone people, animals, plants, and the like. The purpose of bioengineering was initially to use biochemistry to produce more food cheaper, more quantitatively, and more qualitatively to serve the world and economy most efficiently. One of the biggest concerns-as noted above-is the possible effects on the human body and food chain by engineering our own new species of organisms-modified organisms. Due to this, not even our federal government knows how to test or classify these new foods, and if they can’t approve this foods-anyone can add anything to our foods, without recourse.

Folk Psychology, the End to our Emotional Eating

I would like to conclude in this last paragraph one of the main results of our emotional eating that is then mixed with all of the above concepts and bring home some thought provocative questions. In today’s fast track of human studies within the human science and philosophy department, and of course through the conscious of Raw Foodism we are starting to understand a simple seeming concept called Folk Psychology and how it can be eradicated via eliminative theory in a every day social culture.

Just to briefly say what Folk Psychology is. Folk Psychology is the study based on the way we humans have reasoned our feelings, pains, desire, actions, and the way we have come to conclude the type of knowledge that we have come to have. This is a very detailed area, but I would like to concentrate solely on the type of knowledge that we come to have that has to do with our emotions. It is through the knowledge of understanding of what pain is and of what feelings are that we come to conclude what the solutions would be.

For example, if so and so went for the golden arch after a meeting knowing the devastating results on his health, his conclusion is not a simple I don’t care, or this is going to make me feel better… but a long process of not understanding what feeling, pain, hate, or that it causes distress, wincing, and avoidance behavior is! Because Folk Psychology is simply a false misleading common sense psychological framework that is radically misleading conception of the causes of human behavior and the nature of cognitive activity, basically called YOU. On this stand point of eliminative theory, Folk Psychology (your understanding of emotions, pain etc) is not just an incomplete representation of our inner natures; it is an outright misrepresentation of our internal states and activities within the framework of our emotional eating disorders, and the way of not understanding or knowing to reason our bodies biochemistry, I.e. different types of fibers.

Please note that this could be the case while not only with a raw food or vegan or any other believed healthy diets or spiritual way of thinking or living. Simply said, we cannot expect a truly adequate neuro-scientific account of our inner emotions, to provide theoretical categories that match up nicely with the categories of our common-sense framework. Accordingly, we must expect that the older framework will simply be eliminated, rather than be reduced, by a matured self-reflected, self-observed, and self-separation from our emotional states of quail feelings that would then result to total self being, not self observation.

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Baby-shaped pears, aren’t these cute? They are too cute to eat if you ask me. Imagine standing in an orchard of pear trees eyeing these fruits, which look more like tranquil zen babies delicately suspended by branches. I bet it is an amazing sight. I discovered these pears and the story behind their existence from Reuters article Pear-shaped business plan reaps fruit of success.

Hao Xianzhang, a farmer and owner of the pear orchard, who lives in Northern China, was looking for a way to attract more business. One day he saw jelly shaped into different forms at a local grocery store. Seeing this inspired him to try growing his pear into various shapes. It took six years of trial and error before his vision was realized. I love success stories like this. His tenacity paid off and now the world has the cutest little novelty pears.

You can read the story and watch a brief video interview of the man behind the idea. I couldn’t help but notice there was some spraying action going on at the end of the clip. I suspect that might have been pesticides used. Sigh. I wonder if he could possibly be one of the tiny percent of certified organic farmers in his country. Organic farming practices in China is a topic I don’t know much about but I did find this encouraging article Organic Farming Set to Boom in China.

Inspiration and ideas come to us in many ways. He had a vision but as you will read in the article people called him crazy, said it was impossible, and told him to stop wasting his time and money. What if he listened to their dream squelching advice? Those amazing baby-shaped pears probably wouldn’t exisit. In my opinion, this is an excellent example why it is good not to listen to naysayers. Follow your heart and explore your ideas, they might serve up the delicious realization of your dreams. I can’t wait to see Charlie Chaplin as a pear.

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Photography and Text by Omid Jaffari

Effects of Cooking on Vitamins and Minerals

More and more, people are choosing to begin a raw foods lifestyle, and the way our environment is going, it really is no wonder. There are more preservatives, chemicals, and poisonous additives in almost all of our foods. There’s the scary statistics of how much of our produce, meats, and dairy products are modified with manmade chemicals through biochemistry and genetic engineering-up to about 70% now. Then, of course, there are all the processed foods and refined sugars that have no nutritional value and have only served to produce and contribute to serious conditions such as diabetes and the like. In times like these, we have to safeguard our bodies, our health, and our lives from food that has been modified or tampered with. This is why so many have chosen to go with a raw foods diet and lifestyle.

Aside from all the gruesome reasons above of additives and GMO’s, etc; one of the number one reasons that most people switch from a standard diet to a raw food diet is to both lose weight and gain back the vital nutrients that their vegetables and fruits naturally contain. Few people truly understand what happens to their foods’ nutritional value when they cook it. Below, we take a closer look at what the effects are of cooking on our foods’ vitamins and minerals.

You may already have heard that cooking vegetables above a certain temperature depletes the vegetable of precious nutrients and minerals, but maybe you’re not sure how or what the specifics are, and-most importantly, what this means for those who ingest cooked veggies. Basically, at a temperature of 115-118 degrees-that can be just lightly steaming your vegetables-your vegetables lose the vitamins and nutrients they were built with, and also their enzymes.

Organic vegetables and fruits are one of – if not the only – last remaining foods that can be purchased in their original state, uncooked and unprocessed. This means that their stores of healthy vitamins and minerals are at their optimum, and therefore, the best things you can eat to not only feel good, but also build and maintain a strong immune system. This is why it is imperative to your health, wellbeing, and life that you do not compromise their nutrients by cooking them.

How are fruits and veggies compromised by cooking, and by how much? This is one of the main set of questions people have when they first start learning about raw foodism, cooked vs. raw foods, and their future health. Basically, when you cook vegetables or fruits, you lose anywhere from 30-50% of their initial nutrients and minerals and 100% of enzymes are damaged. What happens is when fruits and vegetables are heated at a temperature of over 118 degrees for 3 minutes or more, the vitamins break down progressively more and more the longer it cooks. More specifically, the vitamins and minerals in your once healthy veggies and fruits break down and are completely chemically altered from their original healthy state.

So, what does this mean for you, your body’s functions, and your overall health? Not only is your body now not receiving the scores of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals that the vegetable or fruit once held, but it is in turn getting a completely different animal that cannot be easily digested in your body. These cooked vegetables cannot be digested because one of the side effects of cooking it was that it also lost all its food enzymes. These enzymes, once a part of your digestion, interacts with your digestive enzymes to efficiently and easily digest this vegetable and all future vegetables. Without a properly working digestion, your body is thrown into chaos-and it cannot carry out the filtering process that it is responsible for: elimination of wastes, conversion to energy, and use and storage of vitamins and minerals.

Without proper elimination of wastes, energy conversion, and enough vitamins and minerals, your body is vulnerable to a whole host of short and long term conditions, illnesses, and diseases due to your digestive tract’s inability to process cooked vegetables in your system. So you can see that the reasons for choosing a raw food lifestyle are much more involved than just for the purposes of health, weight loss, etc. Your decision to choose raw foods over cooked foods is crucial to your health and life.

Other Articles by Omid

Enzymes and Longevity

Recipes by Omid

Carrot and Pistachio Soup

Stricky Date Lovers with Upside Down Sugar Cane Whipped Cream

For more recipes and articles by Omid, visit his blog Shiitake and co-founded website Tried Tasted and Served

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