quick whole-food snacks/soups, and free wellness programs . . . part 1 of 4
When your kids open the cupboard looking for a snack, what will they find?
I get asked all the time, “What can I do to replace my junk-food snacks?” We want something that’s good for us, sure! But we want it to taste good and be easy, too. We were all raised with the expectation that food is FAST. And we need it to be, because we’re a highly mobile society. People with kids are always flying around to sports, lessons, shopping. Even if you don’t have kids, you work and aren’t at home for three square meals a day.
You’ve noticed that companies making and selling truly whole, plant-based snacks are few and far between. Most of what is sold, even at the health food store, is only slightly better than the usual junk.
A while back, I found an online company called Whole Food Farmacy. Their whole creed is Hippocrates’ famous quote, “Let food be your medicine,” and I was very impressed with the integrity of the products as I browsed the site. Then someone I met at a conference was telling me how good their food is. Finally, a chiropractor told me that he gets all his patients on these snacks, soups, farinas (drink mixes), and products for nutritional cleansing.
You know that my passion is to help people get better nutrition. I don’t want to derail anyone with promises that a pill or gimmick or diet will save us. I just want to help you get whole foods in your diet, period. Many of you who read this site are already on a very productive journey with 12 Steps to Whole Foods.
I am very excited to announce the addition of this program of vegan, mostly raw, organic whole-food snacks! They feature vegetables, fruits, grains, nuts, and seeds–I’ll tell you about the ingredients in these blogs. If their products are dehydrated, they are below 100 degrees, and Whole Food Farmacy understands the importance of ENZYMES in our food.
Having these on hand, I believe, can effectively end the complaint that sometimes we’re just in too big a hurry to avoid the bad snacks that damage our health. In the next couple of days, I’ll post some ingredient lists, what I think about the pricing, my own experience with this company’s snacks, and FREE wellness programs they’ve made available to gsg.com readers. Here’s the link:
Robyn,
I actually discovered WFF a while back but decided against it because I wanted to “learn” how to make my own snacks and not be so darn lazy about it, but you’re right. We do live in a fast paced society, and I’m too tired most days to even THINK of making a snack from scratch.
One other suggestion I would make is to look at the Sprout People website. They teach you everything about sprouts, and what I understand is that sprouts contain the highest amount of enzymes. Anyways, this company is very educational and provide high quality stuff. They even stupid proof their starter kits.
Hi Robyn,
Since you mentioned them, I have a question about enzymes: I believe raw food is often healthier than cooked, but it is more of an intuitive belief. All the credible information I have found about food enzymes debunks the claim that they participate in human digestion or chemical processes at all. I learned that enzymes are highly specified, and must bind to a unique substrate in order to cause a chemical reaction. They’re like locks and keys, and since plants and humans have different metabolizing needs, they don’t match up. So basically when we eat a big bowl of sprouts, all those plant enzymes go to waste.
Finally, plant enzymes are sensitive to pH, so how can they survive the hydrochloric acid in our stomachs?
I’m very curious where you get your information, because honestly, I’m enamored by the concept of living enzymes in raw foods helping to heal and maintain our bodies. But I need the science to back it up! Any sources you recommend that are convincing as opposed to sensational?
Thanks for you help,
Best Wishes,
M
The most credentialed sources would have to include PhDs Edward Howells, Robert O. Young, and Gabriel Cousins. I have never read anything “sensational” about enzymes, but science regarding their function in every metabolic process is so well established that I’d love to look at wherever you’re getting the idea that enzymes don’t participate in human digestion or “chemical processes at all.” Any scientist studying biology should be able to talk about enzymatic activity in chemical processes, nutrition being no different.
And, when you dig to the bottom of this issue and feel you’re simply hearing two sides of the story, do your own scientific experiment. It won’t be double blinded or placebo controlled, and it will involve only you. But it will speak volumes. Eat lots of dead food without enzymes for two weeks. Then eat nothing but live, enzyme-rich foods for two weeks. Blog here about the difference you feel.
If plant foods are rich in enzymes, and plant foods nourish and heal us, it stands to reason (while it does not necessarily *prove*) that enzymes are beneficial for us. Many of our organs produce enzymes, and while those enzymes are numerous, complex, and specialized, our foods miraculously provide that huge variety, just the ones we need, to minimize the work for our enzyme-producing organs.
–Robyn
Hello again,
If you read my comment, I make no claim that enzymes don’t participate in chemical activity, only that they are specialized. Enzymes ARE chemical activity, and nothing would get done in living tissue without them. My uncertainty arises from knowing that plant enzymes act within plant tissue, and animal enzymes act within animal tissue. The two have no use for one another, as far as I can research.
An example of the sensational information I find so prevalent, since you asked, is the very first article retrieved by google when you search for “food enzymes”. The article sites no references, and makes empty claims like “various experiments have taught us that enzymes are precious commodities.” What experiments?
It also claims (and the article appears to paraphrase Dr. Howell), that if we don’t receive our enzymes from food, our bodies have to “reprocess” existing enzymes into new ones. This is directly counter to the chemical behavior of all enzymes, plant or animal, at least according to the first paragraph of Wikipedia’s enzyme page, which states that “enzymes are extremely selective for their substrates and speed up only a few reactions from among many possibilities.”
Unfortunately I’m not sold on the food enzyme argument, which remains wholly unconvincing. Since I know how staunchly you advocate that the “plural of anecdote is not data”, you’ll understand why I decline to make a guinea pig out of myself by eliminating raw food. Especially since I still believe that raw food is often nutritionally superior to cooked food; I just don’t think enzymes are what’s responsible. Vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants are all altered through cooking. And maybe someday science will show that food enzymes really *are* active in our bodies– if I had the money I would totally fund that research. In the meantime we’re certainly not harming ourselves by eating them!
Cheers
-M
Ah, well, that internet source does sound potentially cheesy. I have had occasional debates with my kids, where they say, “I know this because I read it on the INTERNET!”
You’re better off going directly to the sources on enzyme research, and at that point you may feel more comfortable with the idea that raw food does provide its own enzymes, which do participate in digestion, thereby relieving stress and taxation on the body.
And good that you’re eating raw food and intuition tells you not to do my (entirely facetious suggestion of) experimenting with eating no live food. Plenty of people around you are eating that way daily, anyway, if you want a less personal anecdotal observation!