Sprouts are considered as wonder foods. They rank as the freshest and most nutritious of all vegetables available to the human diet. By a process of natural transmutation, sprouted food acquires vastly improved digestability and nutritional qualities when compared to non-sprouted embryo from which it derives.
Sprouted foods have been part of the diet of many ancient races for thousands of years. Even to this day, the Chinese retain their fame for delicious mung bean sprouts. Sprouts provide all the essential vitamins and minerals. They should form a vital component of our diet. Sprouting requires no constant care but only an occassional sprinkling of water. Sprouts have several other benefits. They supply food in predigested form, that is, the food which has already been acted upon by the enzymes and made to digest easily. During sprouting, much of the starch is broken down intom simple sugars such as glucose and sucrose by the action of the enzyme “amylase”. Proteins are covered into amino acids and amides. Fats and oils are converted into more simple fatty acids by the action of the enzyme lipase.
Health
Raw Juice Therapy is a method of treatment of disease through an exclusive diet of juices of fruits and vegetables. It is also known as juice fasting. It is the most effective way to restore health and rejuvenate the body. During raw juice therapy, the eliminative and cleansing capacity of the organs of elimination, namely lungs, liver, kidneys and the skin, is greatly increased and masses of accumulated metabolic waste and toxins are quickly eliminated. It affords a physiological rest to the digestive and assimilative organs. After the juice fasting or raw juice therapy, the digestion of food and utilisation of nutrients is vastly improved.
An exclusive diet of raw juices and vegetables results in much faster recovery from diseases and more effective cleansing and regeneration of the tissues than the fasting on pure water. As juices are extracted from plants and fruits, they process definite medicinal properties. Specific juices are beneficial in specific conditions. Besides specific medicinal virtues, raw fruit and vegetable juices have an extraordinary revitalising and rejuvenative effect on all the organs, glands and functions of the body.
Health
Enzymes are chemical substances produced in the living organism. They are marvellous organic catalysts which are essential to life as they control all the chemical reactions that take place in a living system. Enzymes are part of all living cells, including those of plants and animals.
The term enzyme, was coined following the demonstration of catalytic properties of yeast and yeast juices. Although enzymes are produced in the living cell, they are not dependent upon the vital processes of the cell and work outside the cell. Certain enzymes of yeast, for instance, which expressed from the yeast cells are capable of exerting their usual effect, that is, the conversion of sugar to alcohol.
A striking feature of enzymes is that while they enter into chemical reaction, they remain intact in the process. They however, act with maximum efficiency at a certain temperature. Lowering the temperature below or raising it above this level slows the reaction.
Health
Fibre forms the skeletal system of plants. Without it no plant or tree would be able to stand upright. Dietary fibre, the roughage of yesteryears, consists of those parts of the plant foods that cannot be digested by enzymes or other digestive secretions in the alimentary canal. Dietary fibre plays an important role in the maintenance of health and prevention of disease. There is sufficient evidence to suggest that an artificial depletion of fibre as in case of refined cereals and sugar has over the last 100 years contributed to several degenerative diseases. Recent studies in this area indicate that sufficient intake of fibre-rich diet may help prevent obesity, colon cancer, heart disease, gallstones, irritable bowel syndrome, diverticulosis and diabetic conditions.
Studies have also established that dietary fibre is a collection of elements with a variety of functions rather than a single substance with single function as was assumed earlier. This new insight into the true nature of fibre has given the lie to old beliefs that bran is synonymous with fibre, that all fibre is fibrous or stringy and that all fibre tastes the same.
Health
The word “Vegetarian” was coined by the Vegetarian Society of the United Kingdom in 1847. The word does not come from vegetable as is generally assumed; it is a derivation of the Latin word “vegetari” which means to enliven. The practice of vegetarianism, hoever, goes far back in history. Many noted philosophers and religious teachers urged their followers to avoid a flesh diet. Brahminism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism and Buddhism acknowledged the sacredness of life and the need to live without causing suffering; so did many of the early Christians.
Meat seems to have assumed an exaggerated importance nutritionally. It is generally mistakenly believed that nutritional deficiencies, especially of proteins and vitamins B12 and poor health may result if animal foods are eliminated. Studies, however, have indicated no health problems or deficiency diseases for those on a vegetarian diet. A vegetarian diet can have many nutritional benefits, if it is rich in fruits and vegetables and contains moderate amounts of seeds, nuts, whole grains and legumes. One of the main benefits of a proper vegetarian diet is its low caloric content in relation to the bulk supplied, which helps maintain ideal weight.
Health
The observance of rules of food combining is neither faddish nor eccentric. It is a simple, scientifically-based system of selecting foods, from among many different types, which are compatible. This facilitates easy and efficient digestion and ensures after-meal comfort. Digestion is not merely a chemical or physical process, but also a physiological one. When food enters the body, it undergoes several changes before it is broken down into its constituent parts and assimilated. But no food can be assimilated by the system and used by various organs unless it has first been digested and then absorbed in the digestive system known as the alimentary canal, while the residue, unfit for absorption is eliminated from the system.
The chemical part of digestion is accomplished by a series of juices and their enzymes. The juices alternate between alkalies and acids, and their character is determined by the requirement of the enzymes they contain. These enzymes remain active in suitable media of well defined acid-alkaline ranges and are destroyed in unsuitable media.
Health
Proteins are extremely complex organic compounds of the elements carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and with some exceptions, sulphur. Most of the proteins also contain phosphorous and some specialized proteins contains iron, iodine, copper and other inorganic elements. The presence of nitrogen distinguishes proteins from carbohydrates and fats.
Proteins are thus vital substances, which form important constituent of muscles, tissues and the blood. Proteins supply the building material for the body and make good the wear and tear of tissues. Several substances concerned with vital life processes such as enzymes which help in the digestion of food, are chiefly protein in nature. There are several varieties of protein. Each type contains a specific number of “building blocks” known as amino-acids. Before they can be absorbed by the body, all proteins must first be broken down into amino-acids. When food stuffs are ingested, the nutrients and amino acids do not immediately diffuse into all the different tissues. There are a series of biochemical reactions in the digestive tract which collect these proteins, break them down and then utilise them as needed.
Health
The term “minerals” refers to elements in their simple in-organic form. In nutrition they are commonly referred to as mineral elements or inorganic nutrients. Minerals are vital to health. Like vitamins and amino acids, minerals are essential for regulating and building the trillions of living cells which make up the body. Body cells receive the essential food elements through the bloodstream. They must therefore, be properly nourished with an adequate supply of all the essential minerals for the efficient functioning of the body.
Minerals help maintain the volume of water necessary to life processes in the body. They help draw chemical substances in-to and out of the cells and they keep the blood and tissue fluid from becoming either too acidic or too alkaline. The importance of vitamins like minerals, like vitamins, is illustrated by the fact that there are over 50,000 enzymes in the body which direct growth and energy and each enzyme has minerals and vitamins associated with it. Each of the essential food minerals does a specific job in the body to keep the body cells healthy.
Health
The word “Vitamine”, meaning a vital amine was proposed by a Polish researcher, Dr Cacimir Funk, in 1911 to designate a new food substance which cured beri-beri. Other terms were proposed as new factors were discovered, but the word vitamin, with the final “e” dropped, met with popular favour.
Vitamins are potent organic compounds which are found in small concentration in foods. They perform specific and vital functions in the body chemistry. They are like elctric sparks which help to run human motors. Except for a few exceptions. they cannot be manufactured or synthesized by the organism and their absence or improper absorption results in specific deficiency disease. It is not possible to sustain life without all the essential vitamins. In their natural state, they are found in minute quantities in organic foods. We must obtain them from these foods or in dietary supplements. Vitamins, are of several kinds, differ from each other in physiological function, in chemical structure and in their distribution in food. They are broadly divided into two categories, namely fat-soluble and water soluble.
Health
The human body is composed of various organs and parts, which are made up of tissues and cells. These tissues and cells are composed of 16 chemical elements.
The balance or equilibruium of these chemical elements in the body is an essential factor in the maintenance of health and healing of diseases. The acid-alkaline balance plays a vital role in this balanced body chemistry. All foods, after digestion and absorption leave either an acid or alkaline ash in the body depending on their mineral composition. The normal body chemistry is approximately 20 per cent acid and 80 per cent alkaline. This is the acid-alkaline balance.
In normal health, the reaction of the blood is alkaline and that is essential for our physical and mental well-being. The preponderence of alkalis in the blood is due to the fact that the products of the vital combustions taking place in the body are mostly acid in character. Carbohydrates and fats form about nine-tenths of the normal fuel of the body. In normal health, this great mass of material is converted into carbon-di-oxide gas and water. Half of the remaining one-tenth fuel is also converted into the same gas and water. This huge amount of acid is transported by the blood to the various points of discharge, mainly by the lungs. By the virtue of its alkalinity, the blood is able to transport the acid from the tissues to the discharge points.
Health