Moving up the Food Pyramid, it is recommended that we eat 3-5 servings of vegetables, and 2-4 servings of fruit a day. This is a fairly sensible recommendation, however, once again the form of the fruit or vegetable is not specified. Is there a difference between fresh vegetables and canned vegetables? Or even fresh vs. cooked vegetables? Pickled vegetables? Frozen vegetables? Organic vs. inorganic? And how about bottled or canned fruit? Dried fruit? Fruit roll-ups? Do the blueberries in your blueberry muffin count? Or the cherry on top of your ice cream sundae?
In a day of modern conveniences, fruits and vegetables are not what they use to be. Yet many people don't see the difference between eating fruits & vegetables fresh, and eating them in the ways I just described. I will touch on the reason each of them is good or not so good, but it boils down to one main issue, which science is so far behind on. Fresh fruits and vegetables have LIVING ENZYMES in them. These foods are alive because of the growing process. When you pick your fruits & vegetables from the soil or plant they grew on, they will continue to ripen on your counter because they are still alive. That is the manufacturing industry's biggest problem, and why they have discovered so many ways to preserve these foods, but the truth is, most all of these ways to preserve them only preserve some of the vitamins and minerals, but always kill the living enzymes.
Just like with the grains, when they are in their hard dormant shell, they are acidic, and when they are soaked they become alkaline because the living enzymes have been activated - fruits and vegetables are the same way. When they are fresh and in their living state, they are alkalizing to the body (especially vegetables). But once the living enzymes are killed by over-cooking, processing, preserving, etc. they actually become acidic in the body.
If you remember nothing else, remember this: Living foods beget Life. Dead foods cause degeneration & death.
Now to touch on each of these ways fruits & veggies are processed, preserved or prepared.
1. Dried Fruit - The next time you pick up a package of dried fruit - check the ingredients list. You will find sulphur dioxide in most brands. Dried fruit is treated with this gas to preserve the color of the fruit so that it doesn't go brown. "Sulphur dioxide is produced mainly from the combustion of fossil fuels that contain sulphur, such as coal and oil... Sulphur dioxide is also produced from some industrial processes, such as fertiliser manufacturing, aluminium smelting and steel making." Sulphur dioxide can cause "respiratory problems, such as bronchitis, and it can irritate your nose, throat and lungs. It may cause coughing, wheezing, phlegm and asthma attacks... Sulphur dioxide has also been linked to cardiovascular disease." (http://www.mfe.govt.nz/issues/air/breathe/sulphur-dioxide.html).
If you wish to eat dried fruit, at least search out the brands that do not use sulphur dioxide, because there are some that don't, although they may be more expensive because they will also be the more organic brands.
Aside from additives (which may also include artificial colors & flavors), dried fruit itself is a concentration of the fruit sugar. It's high sugar content can cause blood sugar spikes and tooth cavities as much as any piece of sugary candy.
And as mentioned in a previous post, dried fruit has had the water evaporated out of it, and when ingested, the body uses it's own water supply to rehydrate the fruit before it can be digested. Most people are aware that eating dried fruit can cause you to feel sick afterward if you eat too much because it swells in your stomach.
For storage purposes, drying your fruit is an effective method for preserving fruit. But a thing to remember - dry it yourself or buy organic brands that don't contain the preserving agents, and before eating the fruit, soak it in water for 10 minutes or so to reconstitute it. If fruit is dried below 120 degrees F the enzymes will be preserved, but dormant. Once soak and rehydrated, those enzymes will reactivate.
2. Canned fruits and vegetables - Many sources will tell you that there is no difference between eating fresh fruits & veggies, and eating canned ones. Once again, look at the ingredients list. Most canned foods contain lots of salt, sugar, and other preserving agents. Many nutrients are lost during the cooking process before the canning is done, and canning has no way to preserve the living enzymes in the food, which were most likely killed during the cooking process anyway. In an effort to rescue the flavor of this lifeless, partially nutrient-depleted food they are canning, they add the extra salt and sugar. To test this fact out, try buying sodium-free canned vegetables and see how tasteless they can be.
Canning or bottling fruits and vegetables yourself can be a little better, as long as large amounts of sugar are not used. Once again, this can be a good food storage method, but canning does not preserve the live enzymes, so this is not the best way to eat fruit or vegetables on a daily basis.
Pickling is another way to bottle your produce. The problem with that is when unhealthy vinegars are used, or chemical preservatives are added. Most vinegars are acidic and not good for the body. Raw apple cider vinegar is a living vinegar with many health benefits. Pickling your own produce with this type of vinegar is a healthy way to preserve them. This type of vinegar does not go bad overtime. Instead it increases in its nutritive value.
3. Frozen Fruits & Vegetables - Freezing your fruits and vegetables is a fairly good method of preservation. Often the living enzymes simply become dormant in the freezer, and are reactivated once thawed. However, few people thaw their frozen fruits & veggies and eat them in their freshly thawed state. Most people cook them, or blend them up in their frozen state. Neither allows for reactivation of the enzymes. Another thing to consider - which crops are ruined when the temperature drops and frost begins to form? Fruits and veggies can't continue to grow once frozen. This seems like the dormant state that the hard grain is in for storage purposes. However, can a fruit or vegetable reproduce after it has been frozen and thawed? Or are the seeds completely ruined? Just some thoughts.
4. Cooked Fruits & Vegetable - As I have been mentioning throughout this article, cooking fruits and vegetables kills the living enzymes. But let's face it, we like our food warm some of the time, and certain foods like potatoes just don't taste good raw. So, if you aren't going to become a 100% raw foodist, and plan to still cook your produce, certain types of cooking are better than others. Steaming is the healthiest way to go, since most of the nutrients are still retained, and depending on how long you steam them for, some of the live enzymes may survive. Boiling is the worst way to cook them, as all the nutrients leech out into the water. Frying is generally not good unless a stable oil is used (such as olive oil or coconut oil), and then you want to keep the temperature on medium-low. It takes longer to cook them, but high heat will most quickly kill the live enzymes, and create free radicals - especially when regular vegetable oils are used. Baking is a good way to go, but ideally you could bake it under 200 degrees and preserve some of the live enzymes - if you've got hours to let it slowly cook.
5. Organic vs. Inorganic - Ok, so say you've decided to add some fresh fruits and vegetables to your diet each day. Does it matter if they are organic or not? Aren't all fresh fruits and veggies alike? Due to farms that mass produce, farming habits have taken a nose dive. One of the biggest problems they are up against is soil depletion. When crops are grown in the same soil over and over, without replenishing the nutrients in the soil, the soil becomes depleted and produce grown in this soil will be less nutritious. It is shown that produce grown organically has 300% more nutritional value than non-organic produce. Then there is the issue of the farmers use of pesticides to kill bugs, which not only pollutes the air, poisoning those who breath the pesticides (and I have met people with severe pesticide poisoning because they lived next to a commercial farm), but remains on the food which will later be ingested. Pesticides kill most of the bugs, but the strong ones survive, creating super bug species. Then there is the issue of genetic engineering. In an effort to reduce pesticide use topically, they are trying to create crops that have pesticides in their genes. But what does that genetically modified food do to us when we consume it? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94d-KVorSHM
http://www.psrast.org/intro1.htm
GMO food is a whole topic in itself.
Although getting fruits and vegetables in your diet is important, eating fresh, organic produce full of live enzymes is the absolute best way to go. For preservation, dry or freeze them when possible, and only bottle if you can use a minimal amount of sugar. For cooking, try to stick to steaming and baking, or use good oils to fry with at a low temperature.
Going back to the Food Pyramid, it would be wonderful if we could get 3-5 servings of fresh fruits and vegetables a day. If the most important thing is getting live enzymes and alkalizing our bodies, vegetables (especially green vegetables) are the best thing to build our diet around. Green vegetables are highly alkalizing, and full of nutrition and living enzymes. Vegetables should really be at the bottom of the Food Pyramid. Filling our plates with vegetables, and having a side of more substantial food will help our bodies run more smoothly over time. Fruits are wonderful too, but should be eaten a little less often than vegetables because they are sweet and slightly less alkalizing. Also the fruit sugar, combined with the acids in many fruits, can break down the enamel of the teeth if eaten too frequently, even in their fresh form. Where I would put vegetables at the bottom at 6-11 servings a day, I would move fruit up the pyramid to 2-3 servings a day.
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