The more I study nutrition the more I am convinced that we need to eat raw uncooked unprocessed food. In 1970 Americans spent about $6 billion on fast food while in 2000 they spent more than $110 billion. Americans now spend more money on fast food than on higher education, personal computers, computer software, or new cars.

The average American spends 90% of their money on processed food, and many wonder why we have an epidemic of chronic degenerative disease.

I recently finished reading Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. It was absolutely fascinating, and the following facts are taken from the book:

In 1968 McDonald's had one thousand restaurants, today it has about 30,000 and opens 2,000 new ones each year. In fact, McDonald's is the largest owner of retail property in the world. The company earns most of its profit from collecting rent, not from selling food.

McDonald's is the nation's largest purchaser of:

• Beef
• Pork
• Potatoes

It is also the second largest purchaser of chicken.

The impact of McDonald's is hard to overstate. The golden arches are now more widely recognized than the Christian cross. And if you are a parent, you know all too well that every month 90% of American children between the ages of three and nine visit a McDonald's, where they receive massive doses of soda. McDonald's sells more Coca-Cola than anyone else in the world.

Additionally, the typical American now consumes approximately three hamburgers and four orders of French fries every week. What we eat has changed more in the last forty years than in the last forty thousand.

So these facts are a major testimony that we have veered away from our natural diet for reasons of convenience, taste, and shrewd businesses like McDonald's that were all too eager and quick to accommodate our wishes.

Folks, we need to get out of the McDonald's syndrome. I don't believe the challenge is to get rid of McDonald's but to change our culture so they don't push these foods anymore. If there is not a market for them, McDonald's will respond and offer what the market demands.

Hopefully we will be able to facilitate that transformation in the not too distant future.

One of the first ways we can do this is by adopting the eating plan. It is becoming increasingly clear that one of the major reasons vegetable juicing works is that it is living raw food. Most vegetables have very low carbohydrate levels that minimally disturb insulin metabolism, but there is something very special about vegetable juicing and live raw foods in general.

I suspect most of us would notice significant improvements in our health and energy if we increased the amounts of living raw foods in our diet. If you vegetable juice it is quite easy to consume over 50% of your foods as raw. I currently believe that a goal might be to approach 80% or more of your diet as uncooked foods.

So what is so special about living raw food? I have compiled the following resources to capture some of my recent thoughts on this fascinating subject. I hope this will spark future discussions on the upcoming collaborative interactive site we are preparing for later this year.

Structural Integrity and Active Enzymes

Most raw food, like our lives, is very perishable. When it is exposed to temperatures above 105 degrees it starts to rapidly break down, just as our bodies would if we had a fever that high.

One of the constituents of foods that can break down are enzymes. Enzymes, of course, help us digest our food. Enzymes are proteins, though, and have a very specific three-dimensional structure in space. Once they are heated much above 105 degrees this structure can change. Enzymes function very similar to a lock and key and once their shape is changed the key no longer works and they are no longer able to provide the function for which they were designed.

This may be a major factor that explains why cooked foods contribute to chronic illness, as their enzyme content is damaged and thus requires us to make our own enzymes to process the food. Many people gradually impair their pancreas and progressively lose the ability to digest their food after a lifetime of processed foods.

Biophotons and Food

Another important aspect of raw foods is the energetic aspect. Without light there is no health. We are human photocells whose ultimate biological nutrient is sunlight.

Dr. Johanna Budwig from Germany has stated that live foods are electron rich and act as high-powered electron donors and as solar resonance fields in the body to attract, store, and conduct the sun's energy in our body. The greater our store of light energy, the greater the power our overall electromagnetic field, and consequently the more energy is available for healing and the maintenance of optimal health.

Currently there are about 40 scientific groups worldwide working on biophotons. The largest association is the International Institute of Biophysics http://www.lifescientists.de/ib_000e_.htm in Neuss (Germany), founded to investigate and understand, via an interdisciplinary approach, living systems. There are 14 Governmental Research Institutes and Universities with common research in:

• Coherence in Biology
• Biocommunication
• Biophotonics

What Are Biophotons?

Biophotons are characterized by an extremely high degree of order and can be described as a type of biological laser light which is capable of interference and appears to be responsible for many effects which ordinary incoherent light could not achieve. Its high coherency lends the biophoton wave the capability of creating order and transmitting information while chaotic, incoherent light simply transmits energy.

An indication of the coherent characteristics of biophotons is exhibited through experimentally proven knowledge that the so-called induced emission of biophotons diminishes hyperbolically, which illustrates an exclusive characteristic of coherent emission. There are clear experimental indications that biophotons have an important regulating function within the single cells, but also between the various cells.

It is possible that the entire living organism is pervaded by a coherent biophoton field, which influences and regulates functions on various hierarchical levels of control and organization. Single cells seem to communicate with one another with the aid of the biophoton field by creating continuous waves.

Accordingly, the biophoton field would be a rigidly structured field of information and regulation that combines the single parts of the organism in a holographic manner at the speed of light and coordinates their function with one another.

There is a broad spectrum of various frequencies and polarization and therefore, a very high density of information. According to current developments in research, the biophoton wave is emitted from the chromatin of the cell nucleus. Calculations show that the helix form of the DNA molecule exhibits the ideal geometric form of a hollow resonator, which allows it to store light very effectively.

From: http://www.apophaticmysticism.com/ Qigong.html

Does Food Have 'Vitality' And Can We Absorb Its Life-Force?

Of particular interest is the technique of counting photon emissions. Every living organism emits biophotons or low-level luminescence (light with a wavelength between 200 and 800 nanometers). This light energy is thought to be stored in the DNA during photosynthesis and is transmitted continuously by the cell.

It is thought that the higher the level of light energy a cell emits, the greater its vitality and the potential for the transfer of that energy to the individual which consumes it. Significant differences have been found in favor of organically produced food (Figures 15.6 and 15.7), but differences also occur with respect to location, freshness and stage of maturity (ripeness).

Sunlight And Health

Sunlight is vital. Without the sun there is no life. We notice very clearly what a revitalizing effect sunlight has on our body and spirits when, after a long winter, we enjoy the first rays of spring sun. But we can absorb sun energy via our food as well as through the skin.

We also live on light

The latest research (Prof. F.A. Popp and Dr H. Niggli) shows that, in addition to the chemical composition of our food, light energy (biophotons) is also an important factor in food quality. The more light a food is able to store, the more nutritious it is. Naturally grown fresh vegetables, for example, and sun-ripened fruits are rich in light energy. The capacity to store biophotons is therefore a measure of the quality of our food.

Stored sun energy finds its way into our cells via food in the form of minute particles of light. These light particles are called 'biophotons', which are the smallest physical units of light. According to Popp and Niggli, they contain important bio-information, which controls complex vital processes in our bodies. The biophotons have the power to order and regulate, and, in doing so, to elevate the organism to a higher oscillation or order. This is manifested as a feeling of vitality and well-being.

DNA And Light

DNA is the central storage repository for light in our body and is twisted around itself in a double helix, which can turn right or left. It belongs to the group of nucleic acids, of which there are two chains: the DNA and the RNA. DNA and RNA are built like a helix. Both strands form the structure and consist of sugars and phosphate groups that show a basic reaction.

The links are attached to the sugars and are basic. However, there are only four bases in the DNA: adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine. Only recently have researchers realized that cells do not simply absorb light but emit it coherently; the DNA and RNA molecules are a laser-active medium and can produce an optical hologram that communicates with the resonance of the background fields of our Earth and the planets as well as galaxies.

This means that they can give off light in a non-chaotic manner. Coherency is the ability of waves to overlap, where spatially different sources of photons either strengthen or weaken each other. This results in a structured state where waves can form a coherent and communicating field, and this field is interactive to a high degree; in the case of non-coherent photons, any interference causes them to collapse within seconds.

Hence, the way ultra-weak luminescent cell radiation works is of significant importance. It does not radiate chaotically, but behaves in a stable manner, phased like a laser-which is light in a coherent form.

Communication turns out to be one of our most basic properties-communication within the system as well as communication with the outside. The aim is to counteract entropy, loss of structure, chaos, a state of high disorder, so as to create and maintain a state of excitement. A high level of order within the body enables an undisturbed flow of information and communication.

This, in turn, maintains the metabolism as well as all other life processes. The building and depletion of cells, the synthesis of proteins, carbohydrates and lipids as well as the flow of neurotransmitters and the entire cell metabolism all work on an extremely rapid transfer of information that can only be achieved by light transmission.

Lack of energy and blockages are signs of disturbance in the flow or process of life. This disturbance can occur on all levels, whether atomic particle or cell, organ or psyche. Hence, any disease can be interpreted as a manifestation of a loss of information and communication with the body!

Life and all particles of a system relate to each other coherently and where they communicate with each other to achieve a sensible cooperation in order to produce the optimal condition for the entire system. Light emission is strongest whenever DNA is reproduced.

The DNA emits about 90% of the biophotons in the cell nucleus. The DNA is an excellent storage medium for light and thus also for oxygen because of its form, the double helix. Perhaps this is why DNA is the basis for all processes occurring in the body-and thus also participates in metabolism.

At least two functions are currently assigned to the DNA: the coding of genetic information, which is passed onto the next generation in the germ cell, and the storing of information to build all cell components. The coherent light from the DNA controls all-important biochemical and changing processes. These processes are the result of information carried by photons. DNA and RNA produce optical holograms and are in resonance with all background fields.