[pct-l] raw food trail menu

First, some brief points to help folks understand what is a raw food and 
what is not, and why raw foods are good for you:

All living things contain enzymes which are the physical molecules through 
which the life force transmits.  Something can be considered a 'raw' food 
(although not necessarily a living food) when it still contains these 
enzymes.  Heat above 105 degrees destroys enzymes.  This is why a fever 
above 105 deg will kill you.

Enzymes are the molecules that do all the work in living systems.  Studies 
have been done showing that our bodies enzyme count decreases as we age.  
Thus, the amount of enzymes in a food or a human body determine how 'alive' 
it is.

When we eat cooked food, our bodies secrete enzymes into our digestive tract 
to break down the food so we can extract the nutritional molecules we need 
from the food.  but secreting enzymes into digestive tract means we are 
losing some of our aliveness (since enzyme count measure how alive we are) 
to digest our food.  this makes sense on an intuitive level, as you cannot 
incorporate a dead thing into living tissue: so when we eat 'dead' food, we 
must give up some of our life force to bring the food back alive so it can 
be incorporated into living tissue.

when you eat food with some life (enzymes) in it, the enzymes are activated 
as you chew the food.  these enzymes inherant in the food itself do the bulk 
of the digestion, eliminating the need for large enzyme secretions by our 
body (preserving our life energy).  there have even been studies showing 
that any enzymes not used up to digest the live food in its journey through 
GI tract can be absorbed whole into our blood through intestinal walls and 
put to use by our bodies, thus boosting our aliveness (see "Enzymes: The 
Fountain of Life" by D.A. Lopez, M.D. and others).  All the conserved 
enzymes not lost to digestion on a raw diet can be put to use in the body to 
do all the chores (detox, healing, etc.) which have been neglected because 
we're so enzyme deficient due to cooked, processed diet.

if you are interested in preserving your bodies enzyme levels, all seeds and 
nuts should be soaked before being consumed, as these foods all contain 
'enzyme inhibitors' which prevent their enzymes from doing any digesting in 
your body.  an unsoaked seed or nut is like a cooked food in terms of its 
draw on your enzyme reserve in order to digest it.  soaking removes these 
substances.  also, grains can be sprouted as opposed to cooked.  and meat 
can be eaten raw.  some raw fooders do that.  meat grosses me out cooked let 
alone raw so i don't go there.  finally, dehydration at 105 deg or below is 
a method of food preservation which also preserves enzymes.  enough of 
that...


OK, so here is a sample menu for a day on the trail.  this was a common day 
on john muir trail.  i don't know how many calories this works out to be, 
and i am convinced that one needs far less calories when eating raw for a 
vaiety of reasons which i won't go into here.  i'll certainly put this idea 
to test this summer:

Equipment: baby food grinder (4.5 oz.).
           one tupperware container (4 cup capacity).
           one water bottle (doubles as a soaking container at night).
           one spoon.
           sprout jars.

Breakfast:

- one cup sprouted and dehydrated buckwheat.
- 1/3 cup soaked and dehydrated almonds.
- one cup raisins soaked overnight in 1 1/2 cups water in tupperware.
- 1/2 cup sunflower seeds soaked overnight in water bottle.
- spices of choice.
- i also like to mix in bee pollen with this b-fast.

in morning, i grind up sunflower in food grinder and put into tupperware 
with soaking raisins.  the sweet raisin soak water absorbs the ground up 
sunnies producing a sweet seed milk (similar to soy or rice milk you buy in 
stores).  i mix in almonds and buckwheat and spices (e.g., fennel, cinnamon, 
ginger, nutmeg, etc.).  the result is a delicious granola.  dates could also 
be chopped into this reducing amount of raisins necessary since dates are so 
sweet.  this prep is quick, i'm usually eating well before friends who do 
cooked breakfasts.

if you want to avoid the sprouting and dehydrating of buckwheat, you can 
simply soak the grain overnight and use this instead of the sprouted, 
dehydrated stuff.  its still good this way, but rinsing off your soaked 
buckwheat after soaking can be a drag on trail, as soaking buchwheat 
releases a sort of slimy substance that many want to wash away before 
eating.  the substance is tasteless and i don't bother rinsing very well 
when i do this on trail - doesn't bother me.  if you go this route, you'll 
want to get a fiberglass mesh screen that you can rubberband over bottle to 
allow easy rinsing of buckwheat.

lunch: soaked nuts and dried fruit (e.g., dates and almonds).
       one can also do delicious 'essene' or 'manna' breads made by
       sprouting grains and then grinding and dehydrating.  i do awesome
       cinnamon raisin breads and savory breads that go great
       with raw nut butters.

snack: spirulina, dried fruit.

dinner:

- nori sheets
- 1 cup sunflower seed/pumpkin seed combo soaked.
- sprouts which i grow on trail.
- wild greens harvested on trial.
- soaked sundried tomatoes.
- ginger, cumin, celtic salt (unheated, unprocessed sea salt).

grind seeds in food grinder to create pate.  mix in spices and salt.
spread some of pate out on nori sheet.  place soaked sundried tomatoes, 
greens over pate.  roll up and enjoy.  makes about 5 nori wraps.  this 
rocks!

variety:  still working on recipes.  got a few other b-fasts and dinners so 
far.  considering writng a book.  "Backpacking in the Raw."  Look for it...

skywalker
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