12 Steps to Whole Foods

Making Salad the Star
organic, place eggs at the top of the list. Most health food stores sell organic, free-range eggs—and many
regular grocery stores also sell them now.
Why Are Enzymes So Important?
If you read my Web site and blog, you know that I believe the #1 deficit in the American diet, and the root
cause of all disease, is that we are not getting enzymes in our food. Our ancestors got plenty of enzymes, as do
indigenous peoples around the world who eat close to the land. The peoples of the world who are free of
cancer, heart disease, arthritis, diabetes, and autoimmune diseases are people who don’t cook most of their
food. Ironically, the legacy of affluence is that most of us now eat cooked, processed, refined foods as the bulk
of every meal and snack.
The body has a limited capacity to produce digestive enzymes, the catalysts in the digestive process. Most
experts estimate that our bodies have about 30 years’ worth of ability to produce enzymes. So, if we eat a diet
of dead foods (cooked and/or processed), our body is taxed, and we use up enzymatic potential that cannot be
replaced.
Every bodily system is affected by enzyme depletion. Because enzymes must be present to digest any food, the
body becomes very resourceful when cooked (or worse, denatured) foods are supplied as fuel. The body robs
the enzymes from other organs, and from other metabolic processes that need them, when the pancreas cannot
supply enough. The short-term effects of losing our enzyme-production capacity and drawing too heavily on
the body’s ability to manufacture them include indigestion, heartburn, constipation, gas, and bloating. The
long-term effects are all the degenerative diseases (cancer, heart disease, and many more) resulting from
burnout of our organs. It all starts with enzyme depletion.
On the other hand, if we eat live and raw food, the food itself provides the enzymes needed for complete
digestion and breakdown of nutrients. Amylase is an enzyme that breaks down carbohydrates, lipase breaks
down fats, and protease breaks down proteins for absorption by the body. Live food—raw, not heated above
116° contains enzymes. Several of our 12 Steps to Whole Foods throughout this year of change are
concentrated on increasing the quantity of live, enzyme-intact foods in your diet.
The highest enzyme content is found in sprouted seeds, nuts, and grains. A nut, seed, or grain that is soaked for
a few hours explodes with enzyme potential when it germinates and becomes a live food with sometimes 100
times the nutrition of the unsprouted food—so much more than just a food with the potential to become alive.
Second only to sprouts in enzyme content are greens. Eat live and green foods at every meal, and you will be
vibrantly healthy even as so many around you making more typical choices are suffering the consequences of
those choices: aging and degenerating more quickly than is necessary.
Like you, I’m sure, I like to travel and go to parties, barbecues, or restaurants with friends or family now and
then. If I can, I always get a big green salad or plate of fruits and vegetables before eating anything cooked. I’m
a big fan of getting vitamins and minerals from food rather than synthetic supplements, which I think do us
little or no good and are largely a waste of money. However, I am a fan of two daily supplements: first, a
probiotic and, second, a comprehensive enzyme supplement. You can find both at health food stores.
For times when I can’t get that big plate of greens with my meal, I keep a bottle of digestive enzymes in my
purse. Take two capsules before any meal that you know will be heavy and less than 60% raw. You would be
wise, in fact, to take one capsule before any meal that is less than 80% raw.
56 12 Steps to Whole Foods
© Copyright Robyn Openshaw