View from the Kalalau Trail, 4/27/2010

Aloha from Kauai!

First and foremost, my apologies for the shortage of blog entries this month—and the sluggish replies to emails. I’m currently exploring the balmy islands of Hawaii, expanding my repertoire of exotic fruit while gifting the mosquitoes with two sacrificial offerings of flesh (my legs). Holy insect swarms, Batman! Expect a steadier stream of updates once I’m back on the mainland and not spending half of my waking hours itching.

Here’s a subject near and dear to any raw foodist’s heart: organics. Given the amount of produce most of us scarf down, it’s only logical that the quality of our food—and any chemical residue it ushers into our body—should be a major concern. It would be wonderful if everything we put in our mouths was free from pesticides, untouched by toxins, and grown in a way that was healthy for both the land and for our bodies.

Most people assume that means buying organic.

Unfortunately, for your average non-millionaire Joe Schmoe raw foodist, organic foods have two obvious strikes against them. One: they typically bear a higher (sometimes astronomically so) price tag than their conventional counterparts, and two: some towns and cities have limited availability of organic produce—which means less variety and sometimes less freshness for you.

Alas, it doesn’t end there. For those of us seeking a squeaky-clean diet that won’t stab Mother Earth in the back, organics are not necessarily the holy grail we’re looking for. Check out these misconceptions.

Myth 1. Buying organic means you’re supporting small farms, family-owned businesses, your next-door neighbor Hank who grows chemical-free cucumbers, and all those other nice people who battle big, evil, pesticide-spraying corporations.

If only this were true! The reality is that most producers of organic food also crank out billions of dollars worth of conventional items. Rather than caring tenderly for the earth and its inhabitants, some of these companies simply realized that they can make a prettier penny cashing in on the organics niche, selling less product for a higher cost.  Take Cascadian Farm, for example—maker of the organic frozen fruit you’ve probably seen lining the shelves of your grocer’s freezer. Far from a quaint family-run farm, Cascadian Farm is owned by General Mills. Yep, that’s right: the same mega-corp that makes fruit roll-ups, Haagen-Dazs ice cream, Gushers candy, Lucky Charms, Hamburger Helper, and a laundry list of other foods that don’t belong near anyone’s lips.

Cascadian Farm organic blueberries... brought to you by the makers of the Pillsbury Dough Boy

Bottom line: unless you’re getting your organic food straight from a farm or at a farmers’ market, chances are you’re still padding the pockets of those giant unsavory companies.

Myth 2. Organic food doesn’t contain any harmful or toxic substances.

Unfortunately, this is not only a common myth, but a potentially dangerous one because it implies organic food is safe to eat without washing. How far from the truth this is! Organic does not mean “pesticide free” or “chemical free.” Organic growers do shun synthetic chemicals, but many make liberal use of organic fungicides and pesticides—often at much higher concentrations than conventional growers use, since organic pesticides are generally less effective than synthetic ones. Organic produce can carry residues of nicotine (used as an insecticide), pyrethrum (“a likely human carcinogen,” according to the Environmental Protection Agency), rotenone (a potent carcinogen)… the list goes on. About half of the most common organic pesticides used have cancer-causing properties, according to Bruce Ames (inventor of the famous Ames toxicology test), and the ones that don’t are frequently harmful or lethal to birds, fish, and small mammals.

Myth 3. All conventional produce has pesticide residue when you eat it.

Thanks to the wonders of technology, this is no longer the case. Some modern synthetic pesticides (known as “non-persistent pesticides”)  have such a rapid break-down rate that by the time they leave the farm, they’re no longer detectable on the fruits and vegetables they originally coated. Depending on where your food is sourced, conventional produce may have even less pesticide residue than organically-grown varieties.

Why does everyone say organic food isn’t as toxic as conventional?

For many years, it was simply assumed that organic, botanically-derived pesticides wouldn’t cause any harm to the human body—the whole “natural is healthy” mantra. In fact, organic pesticides weren’t even the subject of toxicology studies until fairly recently; only synthetic pesticides were examined for their damaging and carcinogenic effects. Once the research spotlight fell on organic chemicals, their own dangers became apparent—but due to pervading myths and pressure from the highly lucrative organic niche, this information hasn’t received the attention it deserves.

In other words…

Don’t freak out if you can’t afford a completely organic diet. Although organic foods do seem to taste better much of the time and are often grown in better soils (which is the reason for the better taste), you aren’t dooming yourself to a toxic overload if you eat some—or even entirely—conventionally grown food. And when it comes to nutritional content of your fruits and veggies, organic-versus-conventional matters less than freshness—the total transit time from the tree or bush to your dinner plate. Spinach, for instance, loses half of its folate within a week of being picked. Yikes, right?

Bye-bye, toxins

Whether your purchases are organic or conventional, you can remove some lingering pesticide residue with a homemade or store-bought produce wash. Try spritzing your fruits and veggies with a mixture of 90% water and 10% food-grade hydrogen peroxide, then scrub those puppies clean with a sponge or vegetable scrubber. Alternatively, you can use a spray made from a mixture of water (1 cup), baking soda (2 tablespoons), vinegar (1 cup), and grapefruit seed extract (20 drops)—or even double the recipe, pour it into a pot, and let your food sit in it for a few minutes before washing it off thoroughly with warm water. If you can find a chemical-free fruit and veggie wash containing grapefruit seed extract at the store, that can do the job as well.

Be aware, though, that as soon as you wash any produce in this manner, it won’t store for very long before going bad—so wait until you’re ready to eat your fruits and veggies before giving them the de-pesticiding treatment.

What’s safest to eat?

Some foods generally require less pesticides and fungicides than others, whether grown conventionally or organically, simply because pests don’t attack them much. The absolute safest raw foods to eat, in terms of low pesticide residue, are…

(Drum roll please)

• Asparagus
• Avocados
• Bananas
• Blueberries
• Broccoli
• Cabbage
• Corn (fresh/raw)
• Kiwi
• Mangoes
• Onions
• Papaya
• Pineapple
• Sweet peas
• Sweet potatoes
• Watermelon

Some other not-so-bad choices include:

• Cauliflower
• Grapefruit
• Honeydew melons
• Plums
• Raspberries
• Tangerines
• Tomatoes

And on the flip side, the most pesticide-laden raw foods include:

• Apples
• Bell peppers
• Carrots
• Celery
• Cherries
• Nectarines
• Peaches
• Pears
• Strawberries

Note: you don’t need to completely give up the foods on the last list (I’m definitely never bidding farewell to my beloved strawberries), but it’d be wise not to center your diet on them—unless you have a source of truly pesticide-free varieties.

Additional tips

Get to know your source. If you shop at a co-ops or farmers’ market, you’ll be able to track down specific farms fairly easily—meaning you can contact your food source directly and inquire about their pesticide and fungicide use.

Grow your own and forage. Whenever possible, take your food production into your own hands: pick wild edibles, grow herbs or greens on your windowsill, plant strawberries in your garden—whatever your climate and living situation allows.

A 100% chemical-free diet might not always be practical or possible, but with proper planning, we can choose our produce wisely to minimize the damage.

Rub-a-dub dub, raw food in a tub.

Pop quiz time.

Say we’ve got a 2-year raw foodist—we’ll call her Betty Lou. Lately, Betty Lou hasn’t been feeling like her usual vivacious self. She’s always tired and fatigued, and even when she musters up the energy to exercise, she can’t seem to build or keep her muscle tone. Her husband Billy Bob keeps pointing out the dark crescent-moon circles under her eyes and complaining that she’s too bony to cuddle with. Poor Betty Lou! She decides she must be going through a deeper phase of detox, and decides to speed up the process by going on a two-week water fast.

What’s wrong with this scenario?

If you answered “over-cleansing,” you’re spot on the money.

The problem is a common one in the raw food world. We’re all trained to focus on purity, on blasting all those nasty little toxins out of our cells so we can be squeaky clean and healthy. And it’s an understandable mentality. In Westernized nations, most people suffer from diseases of excess—high blood pressure from too much sodium, obesity from too much McDonalds, diabetes from too much fat and sugar, osteoporosis from too much phosphorus, liver damage from too much alcohol, congestion from too much dairy—the list goes on. And on. We’re a society of sick, overfed couch slugs, padding the pockets of Big Pharma while lolling slothfully towards our graves… all because of the “excess” we cram down our throats.

Then along comes raw food, with its stunning ability to leave us cleaner than a rubber duckie’s armpit. (Nice image there, huh?) Because most of us started out with a lifestyle of “too much,” we immediately blame any health woes on being toxic—on having residual internal grime from our previous ways of living. That’s why we’ve got a smorgasbord of liver cleanses, colon cleanses, kidney cleanses, gallbladder cleanses, parasite cleanses, colonics, enemas, and water fasts at our beck and call. Indeed, cleanses and fasts are nearly as common in the raw food community as raw food itself.

Fasting, in particular, can be helpful in times of chronic disease or when the body needs a reset from a toxic lifestyle. But there comes a point where—as with the Standard American Diet of Unscrupulous Excess—the “health balance” tips too far in one direction. Just as you can be burdened with the strain of harmful substances and artery-clogging foods, you can be whittled away by too much cleaning.

And this is what more and more raw foodists are experiencing. You wouldn’t expect a carpenter to build a house without having any materials or tools, and you can’t expect your body to stay strong and sturdy if you’re constantly depleting it with fasts, cleanses, and other detox strategies. Unless you were really swimming in toxins before going raw, the niggling health problems that crop up after a year or more of eating an uncooked cuisine (sometimes earlier) are more likely due to deficiency than excess.

If you want to stay healthy, it’s imperative to know when you need to clean up, and when your body actually needs a better foundation to rebuild itself.

Is it time to keep cleanin’? The answer is probably “yes” if you are:

• only on your first few days or weeks of eating a raw food diet
• experiencing frequent mucus and phlegm
• having periods of feeling awesome, interspersed with heavy-duty detox episodes (headaches, the sudden desire to sleep for two days straight, wild cravings for junk food, flu-like symptoms)
• randomly smelling or tasting foods or medicine you consumed during childhood
• observing a resurfacing of symptoms you had much earlier in life (such as sudden, inexplicable pain in that toe you broke 17 years ago)
• experiencing acne outbreaks*

*disclaimer: specific raw foods, such as nuts, can sometimes trigger acne—in which case getting “cleaner” might not always be the answer here.

Is it time to rebuild? The answer is probably “yes” if you are:

• losing too much weight
• experiencing hair loss, excessive skin dryness, or soft/brittle nails
• noticing a loss of muscle tone
• feeling physically weak or lethargic on a consistent basis
• experiencing “loose”-feeling teeth, or noticing that your teeth are chipping or becoming weaker despite avoiding acidic foods
• exhibiting dark circles under your eyes that just won’t go away
• having legitimate cravings for protein (such as unseasoned meat, eggs, fish, or even a hunk o’ tofu)
• not digesting any of your food well
• having to sleep excessive amounts each night, every night—even on days you weren’t very physically active
• in women, ceasing ovulation and menstruation* (men, it’s okay if yours stops)
• feeling constantly hungry, but find that no raw vegan food you eat is deeply satisfying

*some women ovulate without menstruating, but many raw women who cease menstruating do so from hormonal imbalance, excessively low body fat, or deficiency. Tests are available to see whether you’re still ovulating (they may be more reliable than temperature-measuring methods).

If you’re not feeling like a jubilant, high-energy raw creature, take a look at which symptoms describe you better. If you’re nodding your head at the first list, you might need to do a bit more housecleaning before you’re on top of your game again. But if the second list resonates with you more, nix the fasts and cleanses STAT: your body is probably running on low reserves, and trying to scrub away more toxins will not only be futile, but could also be damaging to your health.

How exactly do you rebuild?

• Make sure you’re eating enough food in general. It’s woefully easy to under-eat on a raw diet, and this will probably be the case if you’ve been steadily losing weight/muscle mass—which is the first thing your body sacrifices when it senses a calorie deficit.
• Get adequate vitamins and minerals. Load up on leafy greens, seaweeds, and deeply-colored fruits and vegetables. Consider supplementing the hardest-to-get-on-raw nutrients: vitamin B-12, vitamin D, and zinc. It may help to get a blood test done to see if any specific nutrient could use temporary supplementation.
• Focus on higher-protein raw foods; avoid very-low protein fruits, sweeteners like agave, and oils (which will drag down the total percent of protein you eat). See my earlier posts on the Great Protein Debate Part 1 and Part 2 for more tips and info.
• Consume green smoothies or green juices to better assimilate the nutrients in greens.
• Allow yourself plenty of sleep and rest.
• Consider adding small amounts of energy-dense “taboo” foods into your diet, like raw (or very lightly cooked) animal products or cooked tubers and legumes. These foods don’t necessarily have to be permanent additions to your menu, but they can be deeply helpful for rebuilding when you’re depleted.
• If you’re avoiding certain raw foods for ideological reasons—like eschewing sweet fruits because you’ve heard the sugar is bad for you, eating no overt fats, avoiding sprouts, etc.—consider experimenting with these foods to see if you’re avoiding them for legitimate reasons. A diet with a wider range of foods and plant species will be more rebuilding than a highly restricted cuisine.
• And most importantly: avoid fasting, embarking on cleanses, pursuing highly physical activities without fueling yourself properly, or doing anything else that forces your body to draw on its own precious reserves. It’s time to treat yourself well!

There’s often a division in the raw food world (and other health spheres) when it comes to fat versus fruit. Cultivated fruit gets plenty of flack for being sweeter and less nutritious than its wild counterparts—changes attributed to human intervention and centuries of selective breeding. And the issue of ‘man-made’ modern fruit sometimes becomes an argument for limiting its consumption and eating low-sugar fruits instead, like avocados and tomatoes.

I’ll be writing about the wild/cultivated fruit issue in a later post. In the meantime, I find it interesting that avocados—one of the most popular fat sources on a raw food diet, and the staple of many low-sugar raw cuisines—have managed to dodge criticism about their humongous size. I guess it’s hard to picture avocados being anything other than the plump, fleshy fruits we see in common cultivars like the Hass. But what most people don’t realize (even fruit-and-vegetable-savvy raw foodists) is that commercial avocados are a far cry from what they were originally. In fact, without deliberate cultivation by humans, avocados are small, fibrous, large-pitted, and yield only a tiny layer of that creamy green flesh we all know and love. It’d easily take ten wild avocados to get the equivalent flesh of one Hass, if not more.

That isn’t to say we should avoid avocados or that they’re bad for you—certainly not! But for folks interested in eating foods that are close to their natural state, it’s helpful to understand that these so-called “alligator pears” have been bred specifically for their size, fat content, and copious edible flesh. They aren’t quite so luxuriant in the wild.

Curious what these uncultivated avos look like? Check out the pictures below, and click ‘em for a larger view.

(Images are courtesy for avocadosource.com)