A Special Interview with
Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride By Dr. Mercola
on HOW TO HEAL AUTISTIC CHILDREN
and yourself if you have a condition related to coeliac disease, leaky gut, etc.
Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride has a full-time medical practice in the United Kingdom where she treats children and adults with autism, learning disabilities, neurological disorders, psychiatric disorders, immune disorders, and digestive problems.
In the video, she shares her insights about Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS), which can make a child particularly prone to vaccine damage, and the GAPS Nutritional program; a natural treatment for autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, depression and schizophrenia.
WATCH THE VIDEO AND DOWNLOAD THE FULL TRANSCRIPT on this page:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/07/31/dr-natasha-campbell-mcbride-on-gaps-nutritional-program.aspx
Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride is a medical doctor with a postgraduate degree in neurology. She worked as a neurologist and a neurosurgeon for several years before starting a family. When her first-born son was diagnosed autistic at the age of three, she was surprised to realize that her own profession had no answers…
Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride is convinced that autistic children are in fact born with perfectly normal brains and perfectly normal sensory organs.
"What happens in these children [is that] they do not develop normal gut flora from birth…" she says. "Gut flora is a hugely important part of our human physiology. Recently research in Scandinavia has demonstrated that 90 percent of all cells and all genetic material in a human body is our own gut flora. We are just a shell… a habitat for this mass of microbes inside us. We ignore them at our own peril.
"…As a result, their digestive system—instead of being a source of nourishment for these children—becomes a major source of toxicity. These pathogenic microbes inside their digestive tract damage the integrity of the gut wall. So all sort of toxins and microbes flood into the bloodstream of the child, and get into the brain of the child. That usually happens in the second year of life in children who were breast fed because breastfeeding provides a protection against this abnormal gut flora. In children who were not breastfed, I see the symptoms of autism developing in the first year of life.
"So breastfeeding is crucial to protect these children."
VACCINES AND ANTIBIOTICS RUIN THE GUT FLORA
"This is why it's so important to 'reseed' your gut with fermented foods and probiotics when you're taking an antibiotic. If you aren't eating fermented foods, you most likely need to supplement with a probiotic on a regular basis, especially if you're eating a lot of processed foods.
"In parallel with beneficial microbes in the healthy gut, scientists have found thousands of different species of downright pathogenic disease-causing microbes; bacteria, viruses, fungi and other microbes. But as long as the good ones predominate in your gut, they control all the pathogens… They keep them in small colonies and they don't allow them to proliferate.
"Every course of antibiotics tends to wipe out the beneficial bacteria and that gives a window of opportunity for the pathogens to proliferate, to grow uncontrolled, and to occupy new niches in your gut. The beneficial flora recovers, but different species of it take between two weeks to two months to recover in the gut and that's a window of opportunity for various pathogens to overgrow.
"What I see in the families of autistic children is that 100 percent of mom's of autistic children have abnormal gut flora and health problems related to that. But then I look at grandmothers on the mother's side, and I find that the grandmothers also have abnormal gut flora, but much milder."
"In essence, what we have is a generational build-up of abnormal gut flora, with each generation becoming ever more prone to being further harmed from the use of antibiotics—and vaccines as well, which I'll discuss in a moment."
MORE INFORMATION ON THE "GUT AND PSYCHOLOGY SYNDROME" or GAPS
can be found in Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride's web site and blog:
http://www.gaps.me/
and http://www.doctor-natasha.com/
FIND HER BOOK on amazon.com
and on http://www.doctor-natasha.com/gaps-book.php
GUT AND PSYCHOLOGY SYNDROME. NATURAL TREATMENT FOR AUTISM, ADHD/ADD, DYSLEXIA, DYSPRAXIA, DEPRESSION AND SCHIZOPHRENIA
by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride
The book contains a highly successful GAPS Nutritional Protocol, which is a self-help programme for treating disease. Apart from the conditions, listed on the front of the book, the GAPS Nutritional Protocol will help you with all digestive disorders, autoimmune disease, eating disorders, epilepsy, failure to thrive, childhood disease, problems with development, and much more.
VERY IMPORTANT IF YOU HAVE CHILDREN OR ARE PLANNING TO HAVE ONE!
**********
Showing posts with label Why Eat Raw. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Why Eat Raw. Show all posts
Saturday, 6 August 2011
Sunday, 14 June 2009
Why Raw Food #3: Nutrients
Eating raw foods is a way to give your body some of the nutrition it desperately needs.
Many of us are at least slightly overweight, and even the morbidly obese are starving for essential proteins and amino acids. All the processed, cooked foods we eat give us only a small percentage of what we need. Consequently, we eat and eat and yet we’re still not nourished. Psychologists try to tell us we’re eating to make up for an emptiness in our souls. Wrong! Our bodies are empty and trying to tell us so.
Eating raw foods is good for us on so many levels. It’s satisfying to eat them. They take more time to chew and swallow, so we don’t eat as fast. And we’re getting so much more in the way of nutrition by consuming fruits, vegetables, nuts and sprouts.
Cooking dramatically alters food nutrients
Cooking fruit and vegetables alter their nutritive quality. When foods go through the cooking process, this heating process destroys about one-third to one-half of the vitamins A and C, riboflavin and thiamin. Cooked fats are dramatically deteriorated. Processed foods, with their high-fat high-sodium content, are hard to digest. They take an enormous amount of the body’s energy to consume. When your body’s energy isn’t used up digesting all that fat, it’s available for YOU – for work, play, love, exercise – in other words, for LIFE.
Most raw food, like our bodies, is very perishable. When raw foods are exposed to temperatures above 118 degrees, they start to rapidly break down, just as our bodies would if we had a fever that high. One of the constituents of foods which can break down are enzymes. Enzymes help us digest our food. Enzymes are proteins though, and they have a very specific 3-dimensional structure in space. Once they are heated much above 118 degrees, this structure can change.
Once enzymes are exposed to heat, they are no longer able to provide the function for which they were designed. Cooked foods contribute to chronic illness, because their enzyme content is damaged and thus requires us to make our own enzymes to process the food. The digestion of cooked food uses valuable metabolic enzymes in order to help digest your food. Digestion of cooked food demands much more energy than the digestion of raw food. In general, raw food is so much more easily digested that it passes through the digestive tract in 1/2 to 1/3 of the time it takes for cooked food.
Enzyme-dead food makes you sick
Eating enzyme-dead foods places a burden on your pancreas and other organs and overworks them, which eventually exhausts these organs. Many people gradually impair their pancreas and progressively lose the ability to digest their food after a lifetime of ingesting processed foods.
It can take time to prepare raw foods however, that's why a juicer is an important addition to your kitchen once your start to be serious about raw foods. A good juicer can process an entire apple – seeds, stems, peel, pulp and all – and turn all that into a healthy, nutritious juice. As I mentioned in my previous post, a Champion juicer for instances extracts ALL of the nutrients from the vegetable or fruit, for you to absorb in a form that is very easily digested.
Buying apple juice is NOT the same thing!!! Don’t even look at apple juices or even ciders in the grocery store. Put that $2 or $3 aside and save up for a juicer. Buy bags of apples, orange, bananas, carrots and make your own juices to get everything from the fruit that you’d get by eating it raw.
Add variety
Now you’re getting juice that’s as fresh as the fruit or vegetable you made it from. No preservatives, no processing that strips most of the energy from the fruit. And think of all the delicious combinations you can make with the many tropical fruits that are available now in most grocery stores. You can customize your fruits and add non-typical ingredients like pumpkin to an orange juice. Now that’s a powerhouse of a juice!
You do want to be sure though, that you’re getting enough of the right kinds of nutrition. Eating raw foods doesn’t mean eating only the raw foods you like. Watermelon is good for you, but it’s not enough. The same with most foods. You’ll need to do a little research into which raw foods have the essential proteins, or what combinations of food you need to eat to get enough protein. Raw food eating is intended to nourish your body in a completely different way, but just being raw isn’t enough. You want to do this to be in balance, and you need to balance the raw foods you’re eating for proper nutrition.
One way to ensure that you are getting enough nutrients is to incorporate a new vegetable every week. Buy something you have never heard of, like a "leek", or "swiss chard". You will find a whole new world of tastes and textures open up to you. You will feel more and more deterred by fast food.
More recipes from my Champion juicer manual
Raw Breakfast Muesli
3-4 apples (pealed)
1 orange
2 spoonfuls raw oats (soaked in water all night)
1 spoonful raw wheat grains (soaked all night)
1/2 cup dates or figs
1/2 cup raw almonds, or any kind of nuts
Assemble the Champion juicer for homogenization, and pass the ingredients in the order indicated above. Add some raw sugar (no fructose syrup!) or honey to your taste. You can us different fruits, but always with an orange to avoid oxidzation. You can add cinnamon, ginger...
Almond Milk Carrot Juice
4-5 carrots (unpealed if organic, but thoroughly cleaned)
10 almonds (soaked all night - throw the water away)
Extract the juice of carrots, adding 2-3 almonds after each carrot. Finish with a carrot.
You'll have a carrot juice rich with all the nutrients of almonds. Eat at once.
Liquid salad
3 carrots
1/2 small onion
1 slice green pepper
1 cup squeezed spinach
1/2 lemon
1/4 cup cut parsley
2 tomatoes
Extract the juice in the order indicated above.
This "liquid salad" is great for people who cannot chew salads.
*************
Many of us are at least slightly overweight, and even the morbidly obese are starving for essential proteins and amino acids. All the processed, cooked foods we eat give us only a small percentage of what we need. Consequently, we eat and eat and yet we’re still not nourished. Psychologists try to tell us we’re eating to make up for an emptiness in our souls. Wrong! Our bodies are empty and trying to tell us so.
Eating raw foods is good for us on so many levels. It’s satisfying to eat them. They take more time to chew and swallow, so we don’t eat as fast. And we’re getting so much more in the way of nutrition by consuming fruits, vegetables, nuts and sprouts.
Cooking dramatically alters food nutrients
Cooking fruit and vegetables alter their nutritive quality. When foods go through the cooking process, this heating process destroys about one-third to one-half of the vitamins A and C, riboflavin and thiamin. Cooked fats are dramatically deteriorated. Processed foods, with their high-fat high-sodium content, are hard to digest. They take an enormous amount of the body’s energy to consume. When your body’s energy isn’t used up digesting all that fat, it’s available for YOU – for work, play, love, exercise – in other words, for LIFE.
Most raw food, like our bodies, is very perishable. When raw foods are exposed to temperatures above 118 degrees, they start to rapidly break down, just as our bodies would if we had a fever that high. One of the constituents of foods which can break down are enzymes. Enzymes help us digest our food. Enzymes are proteins though, and they have a very specific 3-dimensional structure in space. Once they are heated much above 118 degrees, this structure can change.
Once enzymes are exposed to heat, they are no longer able to provide the function for which they were designed. Cooked foods contribute to chronic illness, because their enzyme content is damaged and thus requires us to make our own enzymes to process the food. The digestion of cooked food uses valuable metabolic enzymes in order to help digest your food. Digestion of cooked food demands much more energy than the digestion of raw food. In general, raw food is so much more easily digested that it passes through the digestive tract in 1/2 to 1/3 of the time it takes for cooked food.
Enzyme-dead food makes you sick
Eating enzyme-dead foods places a burden on your pancreas and other organs and overworks them, which eventually exhausts these organs. Many people gradually impair their pancreas and progressively lose the ability to digest their food after a lifetime of ingesting processed foods.
It can take time to prepare raw foods however, that's why a juicer is an important addition to your kitchen once your start to be serious about raw foods. A good juicer can process an entire apple – seeds, stems, peel, pulp and all – and turn all that into a healthy, nutritious juice. As I mentioned in my previous post, a Champion juicer for instances extracts ALL of the nutrients from the vegetable or fruit, for you to absorb in a form that is very easily digested.
Buying apple juice is NOT the same thing!!! Don’t even look at apple juices or even ciders in the grocery store. Put that $2 or $3 aside and save up for a juicer. Buy bags of apples, orange, bananas, carrots and make your own juices to get everything from the fruit that you’d get by eating it raw.
Add variety
Now you’re getting juice that’s as fresh as the fruit or vegetable you made it from. No preservatives, no processing that strips most of the energy from the fruit. And think of all the delicious combinations you can make with the many tropical fruits that are available now in most grocery stores. You can customize your fruits and add non-typical ingredients like pumpkin to an orange juice. Now that’s a powerhouse of a juice!
You do want to be sure though, that you’re getting enough of the right kinds of nutrition. Eating raw foods doesn’t mean eating only the raw foods you like. Watermelon is good for you, but it’s not enough. The same with most foods. You’ll need to do a little research into which raw foods have the essential proteins, or what combinations of food you need to eat to get enough protein. Raw food eating is intended to nourish your body in a completely different way, but just being raw isn’t enough. You want to do this to be in balance, and you need to balance the raw foods you’re eating for proper nutrition.
One way to ensure that you are getting enough nutrients is to incorporate a new vegetable every week. Buy something you have never heard of, like a "leek", or "swiss chard". You will find a whole new world of tastes and textures open up to you. You will feel more and more deterred by fast food.
More recipes from my Champion juicer manual
Raw Breakfast Muesli
3-4 apples (pealed)
1 orange
2 spoonfuls raw oats (soaked in water all night)
1 spoonful raw wheat grains (soaked all night)
1/2 cup dates or figs
1/2 cup raw almonds, or any kind of nuts
Assemble the Champion juicer for homogenization, and pass the ingredients in the order indicated above. Add some raw sugar (no fructose syrup!) or honey to your taste. You can us different fruits, but always with an orange to avoid oxidzation. You can add cinnamon, ginger...
Almond Milk Carrot Juice
4-5 carrots (unpealed if organic, but thoroughly cleaned)
10 almonds (soaked all night - throw the water away)
Extract the juice of carrots, adding 2-3 almonds after each carrot. Finish with a carrot.
You'll have a carrot juice rich with all the nutrients of almonds. Eat at once.
Liquid salad
3 carrots
1/2 small onion
1 slice green pepper
1 cup squeezed spinach
1/2 lemon
1/4 cup cut parsley
2 tomatoes
Extract the juice in the order indicated above.
This "liquid salad" is great for people who cannot chew salads.
*************
Wednesday, 10 June 2009
JUICING
Juicing is one of the healthiest things you can do for your body.
In fact, juicing is the easiest way to start a raw food diet. For example, you can replace your breakfast with juices. Nearly anything can be juiced – fruits and vegetables, primarily. It is a form of concentrated nutrition.
Eating plenty of vegetables is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle. Vegetables provide the nutrients you need for more energy, healthy digestive support, and valuable assistance for virtually every cell in your body. Juicing is a sure-fire way to make sure you get enough of these nutrients every day.
Fresh fruit and vegetable juices are good sources of the traditional nutrients. Citrus fruits (grapefruit, oranges, etc.) provide a healthy portion of vitamin C. Carrot juice contains large quantities of vitamin A, in the form of beta carotene. A number of green juices are a good source of vitamin E. Fruit juices are a good source of essential minerals like iron, copper, potassium, sodium, iodine, and magnesium, which are bound by the plant in a form that is most easily assimilated during digestion.
Choosing the right juicer
You will not want to use the common centrifuge juice extractor because the centrifuge action deteriorates the molecules in the vegetables and fruits. You need to use a PRESS extractor.
Here are two kinds of juicers that are best known:
Omega 1000 juicer – Makes good, virtually pulp-free juice. It’s a high-yield juicer but not good for juicing leafy greens. This juicer will not process wheatgrass.
Dr MERCOLA advertises the Omega 8003 Juicer:
http://shop.mercola.com/Electronics___Appliances-Omega_Juicer_8003___220V__Non_US_Model_-P593.aspx
Champion juicer – Better juice quality, pulpy with good nutritional value. Also a multi-purpose machine that grates and churns and can make nut butters. A good heavy-duty juicer, high volume, good for families. Does not process wheatgrass. You can find it in several websites on Google:
http://www.championjuicer.com/what_makes_champion.html
http://www.discountjuicers.com/champion.html
The Champion Juicer chews the fibers and breaks up the cells of vegetables and fruits. This give you more fiber, enzymes, vitamins and trace minerals. This all results in the darker, richer color of the juice and a sweeter, richer more full-bodied flavor. You can see and taste the difference.
I purchased a Champion juicer six years ago and I am still very glad I did that for my health. With it I press vegetables and fruits to extract juices and I very finely grate carrots and other root vegetables to make great coleslaws. I can also mash fruits into a homogenized puree for home sorbets and icecreams, and make gorgeous raw tomato or apple sauce, easy to use in recipes.
Of course, you will need to find very fresh vegetables to make your own home juices, and it is good to think about getting them from organic farming in order to avoid all those chemicals.
Rinsing with cool water will remove some surface pesticide residue, but not the pesticide that was absorbed into the produce as it was grown. Some of the most severely tainted types of produce are strawberries and bell peppers. Some of the least tainted are carrots and avocados. Although in a regular press juicer you do not need to remove the peels and seeds from your vegetables and fruit, you need to at least peel your produce if they do not come from organic farming.
Drinking plenty of fresh fruit juices daily will cleanse your system, make you feel completely energized and last but not least, you will look beautiful. People will wonder what you are doing differently!
Here are a few juice recipes from my own Champion user manual:
Celery and Lemon Cocktail Delight
2 peeled lemons
1 handful of tender celery leaves
1 apple
Juice the celery leaves, then the lemons and apples in the Champion Juicer.
Add water to make 1 quart. Serve with ice cubes.
Frozen Banana Desserts
4 ripe banana (cut in half and frozen without skins)
Assemble the Champion Juicer for homogenizing and homogenize the frozen bananas.
Serve at once. Makes 4 servings.
Power Boost
Drink this at least 15 minutes before eating.
1 tart organic apple, unpeeled, quartered and chopped
3-5 scrubbed, unpeeled organic carrots, chopped
2 clean stalks of organic kale, stems removed
Juice according to manufacturer's directions for your juicer. Drink juice immediately to avoid letting vitamins deteriorate. The colour may surprise you but it is pleasant tasting and loaded with nutrients.
**********
In fact, juicing is the easiest way to start a raw food diet. For example, you can replace your breakfast with juices. Nearly anything can be juiced – fruits and vegetables, primarily. It is a form of concentrated nutrition.
Eating plenty of vegetables is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle. Vegetables provide the nutrients you need for more energy, healthy digestive support, and valuable assistance for virtually every cell in your body. Juicing is a sure-fire way to make sure you get enough of these nutrients every day.
Fresh fruit and vegetable juices are good sources of the traditional nutrients. Citrus fruits (grapefruit, oranges, etc.) provide a healthy portion of vitamin C. Carrot juice contains large quantities of vitamin A, in the form of beta carotene. A number of green juices are a good source of vitamin E. Fruit juices are a good source of essential minerals like iron, copper, potassium, sodium, iodine, and magnesium, which are bound by the plant in a form that is most easily assimilated during digestion.
Choosing the right juicer
You will not want to use the common centrifuge juice extractor because the centrifuge action deteriorates the molecules in the vegetables and fruits. You need to use a PRESS extractor.
Here are two kinds of juicers that are best known:
Omega 1000 juicer – Makes good, virtually pulp-free juice. It’s a high-yield juicer but not good for juicing leafy greens. This juicer will not process wheatgrass.
Dr MERCOLA advertises the Omega 8003 Juicer:
http://shop.mercola.com/Electronics___Appliances-Omega_Juicer_8003___220V__Non_US_Model_-P593.aspx
Champion juicer – Better juice quality, pulpy with good nutritional value. Also a multi-purpose machine that grates and churns and can make nut butters. A good heavy-duty juicer, high volume, good for families. Does not process wheatgrass. You can find it in several websites on Google:
http://www.championjuicer.com/what_makes_champion.html
http://www.discountjuicers.com/champion.html
The Champion Juicer chews the fibers and breaks up the cells of vegetables and fruits. This give you more fiber, enzymes, vitamins and trace minerals. This all results in the darker, richer color of the juice and a sweeter, richer more full-bodied flavor. You can see and taste the difference.
I purchased a Champion juicer six years ago and I am still very glad I did that for my health. With it I press vegetables and fruits to extract juices and I very finely grate carrots and other root vegetables to make great coleslaws. I can also mash fruits into a homogenized puree for home sorbets and icecreams, and make gorgeous raw tomato or apple sauce, easy to use in recipes.
Of course, you will need to find very fresh vegetables to make your own home juices, and it is good to think about getting them from organic farming in order to avoid all those chemicals.
Rinsing with cool water will remove some surface pesticide residue, but not the pesticide that was absorbed into the produce as it was grown. Some of the most severely tainted types of produce are strawberries and bell peppers. Some of the least tainted are carrots and avocados. Although in a regular press juicer you do not need to remove the peels and seeds from your vegetables and fruit, you need to at least peel your produce if they do not come from organic farming.
Drinking plenty of fresh fruit juices daily will cleanse your system, make you feel completely energized and last but not least, you will look beautiful. People will wonder what you are doing differently!
Here are a few juice recipes from my own Champion user manual:
Celery and Lemon Cocktail Delight
2 peeled lemons
1 handful of tender celery leaves
1 apple
Juice the celery leaves, then the lemons and apples in the Champion Juicer.
Add water to make 1 quart. Serve with ice cubes.
Frozen Banana Desserts
4 ripe banana (cut in half and frozen without skins)
Assemble the Champion Juicer for homogenizing and homogenize the frozen bananas.
Serve at once. Makes 4 servings.
Power Boost
Drink this at least 15 minutes before eating.
1 tart organic apple, unpeeled, quartered and chopped
3-5 scrubbed, unpeeled organic carrots, chopped
2 clean stalks of organic kale, stems removed
Juice according to manufacturer's directions for your juicer. Drink juice immediately to avoid letting vitamins deteriorate. The colour may surprise you but it is pleasant tasting and loaded with nutrients.
**********
Monday, 25 May 2009
Why Raw Food #2: pH
The second advantage of getting more of raw vegetables and fruit in your diet lies in the latter's alcaline properties, and this can be proven by measuring your urine pH each morning.
What is pH?
PH is the measurement of how acid or alkaline something is. The pH level scale runs from 1 to 14 with 1 serving as "very acidic" 7 being "neutral" and 14 being "very alkaline". The blood has a PH level. In fact, it goes to great lengths to maintain a pH level of 7.35 to 7.45, slightly alkaline.
Why is this important? Among many reasons why your body strives for this balance is your energy level to begin with. Introducing a large amount of raw vegetable and fruit is what gives the blood enough alcaline elements so that your body is balanced and your energy increases.
To find out what your general pH is, get pH paper strips from your drugstore and dip it in your first urine in the morning. The color will change according to urine pH. Compare it with the color samples on the cover of the paper strip box: you get a number that should not be below 7 nor over 8.
What does acid do?
Your body is a finely tuned machine. Like other types of machinery, the parts need to be kept running by fuel. The best fuel for your body is a custom mix, more alkaline than acid. What difference does this make?
It all starts in the bloodstream. Think of the bloodstream as a superhighway with stops all over the body. Red blood cells are the commuting traffic riding along the bloodstream in a hurry to get to work. These red blood cells each have a negative charge on them, and this keeps them from getting into fender benders and collisions in the bloodstream. When the negative charge is stripped away from the red blood cells, they cluster together and can cause gridlock and bottlenecks in the bloodstream. In short, the traffic in the bloodstream isn’t flowing as smoothly and it causes everything to slow down. If you’ve ever been stuck in freeway traffic you know how frustrating this is.
This stress on the body causes a domino effect, which eventually saps the energy away and makes you tired and sluggish. Acid is the culprit in the bloodstream traffic jam. When acid is introduced into the bloodstream it eats away at the negative charge that surrounds each red blood cell and causes all kinds of problems. How can you avoid this? The answer is quite simple and it starts with what you put in your stomach.
Why acid makes you fat
Red blood cells are created by the food that you eat. When the stomach works on digesting food, it leaves behind natural acidic waste. Your body eliminates this waste through your urine and sweat, but there comes a point when the waste build up is too great to eliminate.
What does your body do with all of the acidic waste that cannot be eliminated? It stores it in your body! The cells in your body are mostly alkaline, but the acid waste starts to attack and destroy them. A lot of energy is expelled keeping the waste from doing detrimental damage to your body, but this fight can only go on for so long. Eventually the build up is so great that the cells deteriorate and cause energy depletion, leaving the body open to opportunistic diseases.
Rawfood brings alkaline relief
Making changes to your diet - and especially introducing raw vegetables and fruits - is a huge step in reversing this breakdown of your body while boosting your energy level. The choices you make in what you eat will greatly determine how much of acidic waste gets stored in your body.
The more alkaline your food choices are the less of this waste will be accumulated in your body, tipping the balance in the favor of good health. By limiting your intake of acidic foods and increasing your intake of alkaline food you can increase your stamina, endurance, and the overall performance of your body machine.
Many books and websites show lists that outline which foods are alkaline and which ones are acidic. But in general, when eating raw food you make sure that what you get is more alcaline than acidic. Even if you eat lemon juice! This will surprise you: although they are acidic in your mouth, eating lemons is a sure way to re-alcalinize your body.
*
Recipe: BANANA PAPAYA RAW CREAM PUDDING
For 1 serving you need:
- 1 cup ripe papaya, peeled, seeded and cut in chunks
- 1/2 cup banana, peeled and cut in chunks
- A blender
Put fruit chunks in a blender and blend lightly until smooth.
Add your favourite spices: cinnamon, ginger... to taste.
Eat immediately.
You can create your own variations, adding:
- Fitted prunes, figs or raisins (soaked before blending).
- Raw tahini, raw almond butter, or any kind of raw nut butter you can find (make sure it is raw, meaning that the nuts have not been roasted before the crushing, and that the crushing was made in a refrigerated mill). However, the main problem with nuts is their acidic property; therefore, avoid this part if your PH is too acidic.
Why "Eat immediately"?
When the fruit is pealed and broken, or if you have just extracted the juice, the vitamins are exposed. They deteriorate in a very short time, from 10 minutes to half an hour according to the kind of vegetable or fruit, and even in the refrigerator. There can also be an oxydizing process of the whole, the taste and smell can change, etc. You want to get all the nutrients in their best state and quality.
Another important quick tip
If you mix raw and cooked foods at the same meal, EAT THE RAW FOOD FIRST, then the cooked dishes. Do not mix raw foods with cooked foods. Although people believe that everything get mixed up in the stomach, this is not true.
****************
What is pH?
PH is the measurement of how acid or alkaline something is. The pH level scale runs from 1 to 14 with 1 serving as "very acidic" 7 being "neutral" and 14 being "very alkaline". The blood has a PH level. In fact, it goes to great lengths to maintain a pH level of 7.35 to 7.45, slightly alkaline.
Why is this important? Among many reasons why your body strives for this balance is your energy level to begin with. Introducing a large amount of raw vegetable and fruit is what gives the blood enough alcaline elements so that your body is balanced and your energy increases.
To find out what your general pH is, get pH paper strips from your drugstore and dip it in your first urine in the morning. The color will change according to urine pH. Compare it with the color samples on the cover of the paper strip box: you get a number that should not be below 7 nor over 8.
What does acid do?
Your body is a finely tuned machine. Like other types of machinery, the parts need to be kept running by fuel. The best fuel for your body is a custom mix, more alkaline than acid. What difference does this make?
It all starts in the bloodstream. Think of the bloodstream as a superhighway with stops all over the body. Red blood cells are the commuting traffic riding along the bloodstream in a hurry to get to work. These red blood cells each have a negative charge on them, and this keeps them from getting into fender benders and collisions in the bloodstream. When the negative charge is stripped away from the red blood cells, they cluster together and can cause gridlock and bottlenecks in the bloodstream. In short, the traffic in the bloodstream isn’t flowing as smoothly and it causes everything to slow down. If you’ve ever been stuck in freeway traffic you know how frustrating this is.
This stress on the body causes a domino effect, which eventually saps the energy away and makes you tired and sluggish. Acid is the culprit in the bloodstream traffic jam. When acid is introduced into the bloodstream it eats away at the negative charge that surrounds each red blood cell and causes all kinds of problems. How can you avoid this? The answer is quite simple and it starts with what you put in your stomach.
Why acid makes you fat
Red blood cells are created by the food that you eat. When the stomach works on digesting food, it leaves behind natural acidic waste. Your body eliminates this waste through your urine and sweat, but there comes a point when the waste build up is too great to eliminate.
What does your body do with all of the acidic waste that cannot be eliminated? It stores it in your body! The cells in your body are mostly alkaline, but the acid waste starts to attack and destroy them. A lot of energy is expelled keeping the waste from doing detrimental damage to your body, but this fight can only go on for so long. Eventually the build up is so great that the cells deteriorate and cause energy depletion, leaving the body open to opportunistic diseases.
Rawfood brings alkaline relief
Making changes to your diet - and especially introducing raw vegetables and fruits - is a huge step in reversing this breakdown of your body while boosting your energy level. The choices you make in what you eat will greatly determine how much of acidic waste gets stored in your body.
The more alkaline your food choices are the less of this waste will be accumulated in your body, tipping the balance in the favor of good health. By limiting your intake of acidic foods and increasing your intake of alkaline food you can increase your stamina, endurance, and the overall performance of your body machine.
Many books and websites show lists that outline which foods are alkaline and which ones are acidic. But in general, when eating raw food you make sure that what you get is more alcaline than acidic. Even if you eat lemon juice! This will surprise you: although they are acidic in your mouth, eating lemons is a sure way to re-alcalinize your body.
*
Recipe: BANANA PAPAYA RAW CREAM PUDDING
For 1 serving you need:
- 1 cup ripe papaya, peeled, seeded and cut in chunks
- 1/2 cup banana, peeled and cut in chunks
- A blender
Put fruit chunks in a blender and blend lightly until smooth.
Add your favourite spices: cinnamon, ginger... to taste.
Eat immediately.
You can create your own variations, adding:
- Fitted prunes, figs or raisins (soaked before blending).
- Raw tahini, raw almond butter, or any kind of raw nut butter you can find (make sure it is raw, meaning that the nuts have not been roasted before the crushing, and that the crushing was made in a refrigerated mill). However, the main problem with nuts is their acidic property; therefore, avoid this part if your PH is too acidic.
Why "Eat immediately"?
When the fruit is pealed and broken, or if you have just extracted the juice, the vitamins are exposed. They deteriorate in a very short time, from 10 minutes to half an hour according to the kind of vegetable or fruit, and even in the refrigerator. There can also be an oxydizing process of the whole, the taste and smell can change, etc. You want to get all the nutrients in their best state and quality.
Another important quick tip
If you mix raw and cooked foods at the same meal, EAT THE RAW FOOD FIRST, then the cooked dishes. Do not mix raw foods with cooked foods. Although people believe that everything get mixed up in the stomach, this is not true.
****************
Monday, 18 May 2009
Why Raw Food #1: Enzymes
I already posted some general comments about why eat raw food. Today I am starting a series of practical « reasons why » that will include:
Why Raw Food #1: Enzymes
What are enzymes?
The point in eating raw food is this: Raw foods contain enzymes. When we heating our food over 116°F, enzymes in food are destroyed - in fact, they start to degrade in as little as 102°F. All cooked food is devoid of enzymes, furthermore cooking food changes the molecular structure of the food and renders it toxic. Raw foods that are alive also have enormously higher nutrient values than cooked foods.
Enzymes are complex organic substances originating from living cells and capable of producing certain chemical changes in organic substances by catalytic action.
What do enzymes do in the body?
It is enzyme activity that accomplishes all biological work. When the food is cooked beyond 118°F (48°C), all of these naturally occurring enzymes are killed, and your body must manufacture its own digestive enzymes to do the job.
Enzyme researcher Dr. Edward Howell explains that when the body is busy digesting food, it cannot divert enough energy to continue processing the type of enzymes needed to do other tasks. There is conflict between the demands of your digestive system for a constant supply of digestive enzymes, and your body's needs for metabolic enzymes that are vital for cleansing, healing, and building.
Without an adequate supply of metabolic enzymes, over time, the body starts to show signs of suffering and fatigue, such as: indigestion, constipation, age spots, chronic fatigue, lethargy, wrinkles, skin problems, declining eyesight, poor memory, mood swings and irritability (leading to depression), allergies, brain fog, parasitis (candida), hypoglycemia (leading to diabetes), etc... the list is not closed. And finally, degenerative diseases silently install themselves.
Enzymes and digestion
The catalytic action of enzymes assists in the digestion and absorption of foods. If someone eats enzymeless food (such as "junk food" for instance) the body does not get maximum utilization of the food. This causes toxicity in the body, which turns into fat, clogs arteries, blocks the cleaning organs (kidneys, liver, skin...). Now do you understand why developed countries are getting plagued with overweight problems?
Raw food and the stomach's acid secretions
Cooked protein foods require large secretions of stomach acid (which is not healthful for several reasons - just think about the common "acid reflux" problem...). When we stop eating those foods our stomach doesn't produce much stomach acid. Many people who eat raw foods eat a low protein diet and are free from the stomach acid secretions and have much more energy and a lighter disposition.
Get living food
In living foods, the enzyme content is much higher. Raw, unsprouted nuts contain enzymes in a "dormant" state. To activate the enzymes contained in almonds, for example, soak them in water for as just 24 hours. Once the almonds begin to sprout, the enzymes become "active" and are then considered living.
Of course, this works solely if your almonds were raw from the beginning. Very often, so-called "raw" almonds sold in most food stores have been heated to kill molds and parasites. They appear "raw" and are not. But this is another question for future posts.
Different kinds of raw food diets
Some people consider that they are a raw food dieter from the moment they eat 75% of their food raw. But for others, raw food diet means EVERYTHING RAW.
Among those exclusive raw-eaters, there are specific categories, for example:
- Fruitarian: People who consume mostly fruits.
- Sproutarian: People who consume mostly sprouts.
- Juicearian: People who consume mostly fresh juice.
What do raw-foodists eat?
Raw-foodists eat all fruits, vegetables, sprouts, nuts, seeds, grains, sea vegetables, and other organic/natural foods that have not been processed. In some instances, there are special ways to prepare the foods: for example, most raw-foodists soak or sprout nuts, seeds and grains before consuming them.
What do raw-foodists drink?
They drink pure water (source water, or tap water that has been purified), freshly made juices (made with a personal juicer and consumed immediately). They can even drink coconut water or coconut milk from young coconuts.
Most drinks processed at a store (soda, bottled juices, coffee, alcohol) have been processed, including bottled organic juice sold in health food stores. None of them are really healthy from our "raw food" point of view here, and they always contain too much sugar for overweight or diabetic people. (I'll later have a line of posts on "juicing", how and why).
Where can I start? COLESLAW RECIPE
If you want to achieve optimal health, the best way to do that is to eat a high enzyme diet, and this means adding more and more raw food into your diet.
You can start by including a "coleslaw" at the beginning of each meal. Coleslaw is a salad made of finely chopped vegetables. For instance, finely chop the following ingredients:
- 3 carrots
- 1 small red beet
- 2 kale leaves
- 1 small onion
(You can also add sliced tomatoes, green peppers, cucumber, radishes, mushrooms - you can finely chop zucchini, celery root and stalks, ... unleash your creativity).
Mix them together.
Make your own dressing, according to your own taste, with:
- 3 teaspoons olive oil or flaxseed oil or hemp oil (raw and organic, from your health food store)
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice or apple cider vinegar (you get two different tastes there),
- and/or Tamari sauce if you like it (the pure, organic stuff used by macrobiotic eaters, not the "soy sauce" junk full of chemicals)
- Finely chopped garlic (if you like it)
- Finely chopped fresh herbs: parsley, mint, oregano, ... to your taste.
- Half an avocado, mashed (in this case, you can use less oil).
- Salt and pepper to taste.
- Ginger, or Cayenne pepper... to taste.
Try and have fun!
Eat a full serving of this at the beginning of a meal and I guarantee you will feel full already and you will want less cooked food to continue with your meal.
Attention: do not mix raw and cooked foods. Eat raw food first, then cooked food, and not the other way around. The enzymes from raw food at the beginning of the meal help with the digestion of cooked food that follows.
Give your body what it really CRAVES: enzymes and nutrients.
*****
Why Raw Food #1: Enzymes
Why Raw Food #2: PH
Why Raw Food #3: Nutrient value and energy
Why Raw Food #4: Detox process
Why Raw Food #5: Organic food
Why Raw Food #2: PH
Why Raw Food #3: Nutrient value and energy
Why Raw Food #4: Detox process
Why Raw Food #5: Organic food
...
Why Raw Food #1: Enzymes
What are enzymes?
The point in eating raw food is this: Raw foods contain enzymes. When we heating our food over 116°F, enzymes in food are destroyed - in fact, they start to degrade in as little as 102°F. All cooked food is devoid of enzymes, furthermore cooking food changes the molecular structure of the food and renders it toxic. Raw foods that are alive also have enormously higher nutrient values than cooked foods.
Enzymes are complex organic substances originating from living cells and capable of producing certain chemical changes in organic substances by catalytic action.
What do enzymes do in the body?
It is enzyme activity that accomplishes all biological work. When the food is cooked beyond 118°F (48°C), all of these naturally occurring enzymes are killed, and your body must manufacture its own digestive enzymes to do the job.
Enzyme researcher Dr. Edward Howell explains that when the body is busy digesting food, it cannot divert enough energy to continue processing the type of enzymes needed to do other tasks. There is conflict between the demands of your digestive system for a constant supply of digestive enzymes, and your body's needs for metabolic enzymes that are vital for cleansing, healing, and building.
Without an adequate supply of metabolic enzymes, over time, the body starts to show signs of suffering and fatigue, such as: indigestion, constipation, age spots, chronic fatigue, lethargy, wrinkles, skin problems, declining eyesight, poor memory, mood swings and irritability (leading to depression), allergies, brain fog, parasitis (candida), hypoglycemia (leading to diabetes), etc... the list is not closed. And finally, degenerative diseases silently install themselves.
Enzymes and digestion
The catalytic action of enzymes assists in the digestion and absorption of foods. If someone eats enzymeless food (such as "junk food" for instance) the body does not get maximum utilization of the food. This causes toxicity in the body, which turns into fat, clogs arteries, blocks the cleaning organs (kidneys, liver, skin...). Now do you understand why developed countries are getting plagued with overweight problems?
Raw food and the stomach's acid secretions
Cooked protein foods require large secretions of stomach acid (which is not healthful for several reasons - just think about the common "acid reflux" problem...). When we stop eating those foods our stomach doesn't produce much stomach acid. Many people who eat raw foods eat a low protein diet and are free from the stomach acid secretions and have much more energy and a lighter disposition.
Get living food
In living foods, the enzyme content is much higher. Raw, unsprouted nuts contain enzymes in a "dormant" state. To activate the enzymes contained in almonds, for example, soak them in water for as just 24 hours. Once the almonds begin to sprout, the enzymes become "active" and are then considered living.
Of course, this works solely if your almonds were raw from the beginning. Very often, so-called "raw" almonds sold in most food stores have been heated to kill molds and parasites. They appear "raw" and are not. But this is another question for future posts.
Different kinds of raw food diets
Some people consider that they are a raw food dieter from the moment they eat 75% of their food raw. But for others, raw food diet means EVERYTHING RAW.
Among those exclusive raw-eaters, there are specific categories, for example:
- Fruitarian: People who consume mostly fruits.
- Sproutarian: People who consume mostly sprouts.
- Juicearian: People who consume mostly fresh juice.
What do raw-foodists eat?
Raw-foodists eat all fruits, vegetables, sprouts, nuts, seeds, grains, sea vegetables, and other organic/natural foods that have not been processed. In some instances, there are special ways to prepare the foods: for example, most raw-foodists soak or sprout nuts, seeds and grains before consuming them.
What do raw-foodists drink?
They drink pure water (source water, or tap water that has been purified), freshly made juices (made with a personal juicer and consumed immediately). They can even drink coconut water or coconut milk from young coconuts.
Most drinks processed at a store (soda, bottled juices, coffee, alcohol) have been processed, including bottled organic juice sold in health food stores. None of them are really healthy from our "raw food" point of view here, and they always contain too much sugar for overweight or diabetic people. (I'll later have a line of posts on "juicing", how and why).
Where can I start? COLESLAW RECIPE
If you want to achieve optimal health, the best way to do that is to eat a high enzyme diet, and this means adding more and more raw food into your diet.
You can start by including a "coleslaw" at the beginning of each meal. Coleslaw is a salad made of finely chopped vegetables. For instance, finely chop the following ingredients:
- 3 carrots
- 1 small red beet
- 2 kale leaves
- 1 small onion
(You can also add sliced tomatoes, green peppers, cucumber, radishes, mushrooms - you can finely chop zucchini, celery root and stalks, ... unleash your creativity).
Mix them together.
Make your own dressing, according to your own taste, with:
- 3 teaspoons olive oil or flaxseed oil or hemp oil (raw and organic, from your health food store)
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice or apple cider vinegar (you get two different tastes there),
- and/or Tamari sauce if you like it (the pure, organic stuff used by macrobiotic eaters, not the "soy sauce" junk full of chemicals)
- Finely chopped garlic (if you like it)
- Finely chopped fresh herbs: parsley, mint, oregano, ... to your taste.
- Half an avocado, mashed (in this case, you can use less oil).
- Salt and pepper to taste.
- Ginger, or Cayenne pepper... to taste.
Try and have fun!
Eat a full serving of this at the beginning of a meal and I guarantee you will feel full already and you will want less cooked food to continue with your meal.
Attention: do not mix raw and cooked foods. Eat raw food first, then cooked food, and not the other way around. The enzymes from raw food at the beginning of the meal help with the digestion of cooked food that follows.
Give your body what it really CRAVES: enzymes and nutrients.
*****
Monday, 11 May 2009
Raw Food and perfect health
Why try the raw food diet?
As I said in my previous post, cooking takes enzymes, nutrients and vitamins OUT of food: when you stop cooking food and start eating uncooked, nutrient-rich foods you automatically start feeding your body what it needs. A raw carrot has exponentially more nutrition than a cooked carrot.
Cut out digestive problems
Cooking also alters the chemistry of foods, often making them harder to digest. People have so many digestive problems because they are putting foods into their bodies in a form that we were not designed to absorb. Enzymes enhance the digestive process. High fiber, high water content fresh produce abolishes constipation of the bowels, cells and circulatory system. Obstructions are cleared and blood flow increases to each and every cell in the body. Enhanced blood flow is significant for two reasons: as mentioned above, blood delivers nutrients and oxygen to living cells, and carries away their toxic metabolites.
Keep away weight gain risk
Obesity is endemic in this country. The diet industry is more profitable than the oil companies. Why? Because the way we eat and prepare our food practically guarantees that we’ll overeat. Psychologists tell us that we overeat because our souls are hungry. But in reality, our bodies are hungry, even though we may feel full. When you start giving your body the nutrients it craves, overeating will cease.
Get more energy
Eating raw foods is a boost to your metabolism as well. You do not only take in the food with its nutrients and vitamins, you also take in the energy of the plant itself. They have accumulated energy from the sun, from the air, and possibly from the healthier atmosphere of an organically managed farm. You get all this when you eat the vegetables and plants in their fresh, raw state. Moreover, rather than spending energy to rid itself of toxins produced by cooking food, the body uses its energy to feed every cell, sending vitamins, fluids, enzymes and oxygen to make your body the efficient machine it was intended to be.
Cut out binge eating
You’ll naturally stop overeating because your body and brain will no longer be starving for the nutrients they need. A starving brain will trigger the thoughts that make you overeat. The brain and the rest of your body don’t need quantity; they need quality.
*************
As I said in my previous post, cooking takes enzymes, nutrients and vitamins OUT of food: when you stop cooking food and start eating uncooked, nutrient-rich foods you automatically start feeding your body what it needs. A raw carrot has exponentially more nutrition than a cooked carrot.
Cut out digestive problems
Cooking also alters the chemistry of foods, often making them harder to digest. People have so many digestive problems because they are putting foods into their bodies in a form that we were not designed to absorb. Enzymes enhance the digestive process. High fiber, high water content fresh produce abolishes constipation of the bowels, cells and circulatory system. Obstructions are cleared and blood flow increases to each and every cell in the body. Enhanced blood flow is significant for two reasons: as mentioned above, blood delivers nutrients and oxygen to living cells, and carries away their toxic metabolites.
Keep away weight gain risk
Obesity is endemic in this country. The diet industry is more profitable than the oil companies. Why? Because the way we eat and prepare our food practically guarantees that we’ll overeat. Psychologists tell us that we overeat because our souls are hungry. But in reality, our bodies are hungry, even though we may feel full. When you start giving your body the nutrients it craves, overeating will cease.
Get more energy
Eating raw foods is a boost to your metabolism as well. You do not only take in the food with its nutrients and vitamins, you also take in the energy of the plant itself. They have accumulated energy from the sun, from the air, and possibly from the healthier atmosphere of an organically managed farm. You get all this when you eat the vegetables and plants in their fresh, raw state. Moreover, rather than spending energy to rid itself of toxins produced by cooking food, the body uses its energy to feed every cell, sending vitamins, fluids, enzymes and oxygen to make your body the efficient machine it was intended to be.
Cut out binge eating
You’ll naturally stop overeating because your body and brain will no longer be starving for the nutrients they need. A starving brain will trigger the thoughts that make you overeat. The brain and the rest of your body don’t need quantity; they need quality.
*************
Sunday, 10 May 2009
Raw Food Diet: returning to the source of food
The idea of Raw Food Diet has been around for some time. It is not just as a diet to lose weight (although it works very well), but a diet for a long and healthy life. Eating processed food has become such a big part of culture that we do not even think about what we are putting into our bodies, and how far we have come nutritionally from our ancestral, agrarian roots. And when there is health damage, we do not suspect our food as the origin; we go to the doctor for medical treatment of the symptoms.
A raw food diet means consuming food in its natural, unprocessed form. There are several common-sense rationales for why this is a good idea. Processing and cooking food can take so much of the basic nutritional value away. Think of some of the conventional wisdom you have heard about for years, such as: If you cook pasta just to the al dente (or medium) stage, it will have more calories, yes, but it will have more the nutritional value in it than if you cooked it to a well-done stage. Or you probably remember hearing not to peel carrots or potatoes too deeply, because most of the nutrients and values are just under the surface. That is as untrue as believing that the Earth is flat.
The raw food diet means eating unprocessed, uncooked, organic, whole foods, such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, dried fruits, seaweeds, etc. For some people, it means a diet that is at least 75% uncooked. Other people believe that you cannot really heal your body if you do not eat 100% uncooked food, especially if you have a very serious or chronic disease.
Cooking does not only take out flavor and nutrition from vegetables and fruits. It takes all the ENZYMES away. Enzymes are vital elements in the whole functioning of our body. I'll return to that idea in another post. All enzymes die at a temperature of 101° F. Enzymes are alive elements in what you eat, they are what makes your body keep living on.
A raw food diet means eating more the way our ancient ancestors did, and we believe they were healthier and more fit. They cooked very little, and certainly did not cook or process fruits and vegetables. They ate them RAW. Their water was not from a tap; it was natural, spring water.
That is an idea that make sense, to think about how our bodies were meant to eat.
Raw Food Diet is a way of eating that is in harmony with the planet and in harmony with our own metabolisms. Our bodies were meant to work, and need to work to be efficient. That means exercise, certainly, but it also means eating natural, raw foods that are more easily digested than processed food because they still contain all the enzymes.
***********
A raw food diet means consuming food in its natural, unprocessed form. There are several common-sense rationales for why this is a good idea. Processing and cooking food can take so much of the basic nutritional value away. Think of some of the conventional wisdom you have heard about for years, such as: If you cook pasta just to the al dente (or medium) stage, it will have more calories, yes, but it will have more the nutritional value in it than if you cooked it to a well-done stage. Or you probably remember hearing not to peel carrots or potatoes too deeply, because most of the nutrients and values are just under the surface. That is as untrue as believing that the Earth is flat.
The raw food diet means eating unprocessed, uncooked, organic, whole foods, such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, dried fruits, seaweeds, etc. For some people, it means a diet that is at least 75% uncooked. Other people believe that you cannot really heal your body if you do not eat 100% uncooked food, especially if you have a very serious or chronic disease.
Cooking does not only take out flavor and nutrition from vegetables and fruits. It takes all the ENZYMES away. Enzymes are vital elements in the whole functioning of our body. I'll return to that idea in another post. All enzymes die at a temperature of 101° F. Enzymes are alive elements in what you eat, they are what makes your body keep living on.
A raw food diet means eating more the way our ancient ancestors did, and we believe they were healthier and more fit. They cooked very little, and certainly did not cook or process fruits and vegetables. They ate them RAW. Their water was not from a tap; it was natural, spring water.
That is an idea that make sense, to think about how our bodies were meant to eat.
Raw Food Diet is a way of eating that is in harmony with the planet and in harmony with our own metabolisms. Our bodies were meant to work, and need to work to be efficient. That means exercise, certainly, but it also means eating natural, raw foods that are more easily digested than processed food because they still contain all the enzymes.
***********
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