What is the most important ingredient in the human diet? Is it Protein? Carbohydrates? Fat? Vitamins? Minerals? All of these components are essential, but I consider the most vital element in human food to be life. Does cooking add more life to our meals? Unfortunately, the opposite is true, cooking irreversibly destroys life in our food. To illustrate, let us compare two almond seeds. One seed is raw and one is roasted. To the eye they look identical and many nutritionists will claim that they have the same nutritional content. Yet, let us put these two seeds in good, fertile soil and wait. The one that is roasted will quickly rot, while the raw almond seed will not rot. The wise little kernel will manage to stay intact until springtime. When the waters from melted snow will unlock the inhibitors, the almond seed will start to grow. It will grow into a beautiful almond tree that will yield thousands more almonds every year. Nothing could ever grow out of the roasted seed. Obviously, there is a big difference between the raw almond and the roasted one. This difference is as significant as the difference between life and death. Imagine that somewhere in your body you need a certain nutrient. Would you want this nutrient to come from an almond that has no life in it, or the one in which every cell is filled with life?

Every one of us is alive. We think we know a lot about life. Yet, do we know exactly what is life? This question is more than just complicated, it is indeed an unanswerable question. That’s right, to this day a universal definition of life has not been found. According to the Wikipedia∗, “life is the characteristic state of organisms. It exhibits the following common properties:

An entity with the above properties is considered to be “organic life.”I trust that this definition is accurate according to the scientific point of view. However, to me life is way more exciting than merely being an entity that responds to stimuli and has the capacity to grow. I will now try to share with you my personal perception of life. I suppose that all people have a lot in common and I hope that you will be able to sense what meaning life has for me.

How do I know that I am alive? It is not because I am moving, since cars are moving too, although they are not alive. It is not because I am breathing, as a vacuum cleaner breaths also. It is not because I smile, there are smiling toys out there. I think the question, “what is life?” is a mystical question and that life cannot be measured by any scientific means.

I feel my own aliveness through feelings that come from within me. I feel my own presence inside my body. I feel that I am the life in my body. I care for that life more than for my body itself because I wouldn’t care much for my own body after my life ends. I only care for my body while my life is in it.

The second “simple” question is “where is life in my body?” Is it just in my head, or in my heart, or in my fingers, or in the parts that are moving? I feel that my life is everywhere in my body, in every one of 75 trillion little cells.

I can see life pouring from people’s eyes. They say that eyes are the windows of the soul. Why do we feel certain discomfort while looking into another person’s eyes? I can take a doll and look into its eyes for hours and I won’t feel any discomfort whatsoever. But when I look into people’s eyes I definitely experience a sensation, which can sometimes be dramatic. I know that I can sense a lot with my eyes. For example, I can tell if the person is looking at me or not from a remote distance, like the other side of a soccer field. Many times I have wondered, how I could tell? The pupils of the human eye are as tiny as letters in a book. While I cannot read a book from the other side of a soccer field, I can tell for sure if my friend is looking at me because I can feel the connection with this person through our eyes. Awareness of this magnificent power in me, called life, fills me with joy and appreciation.

There is life in every single cell of our body and maybe even beyond our body. Once,  my family participated in a health expo in Canada. Soon after our arrival we discovered a Kirlian photography∗ booth that offered whole body pictures taken with a special camera. We each ordered a picture and was amazed to discover that our energy on those pictures appeared to be a lot bigger than our physical bodies and it looked as an oval-shaped cloud. After spending two long hard-working days at that expo, each one of us took a second picture from the same photographer. This time we were disappointed because our energy clouds looked a lot smaller and were not evenly shaped. From that experience I concluded that our life energy is constantly changing depending on our actions and the conditions we live in.

From biology we know that inside of the plant cells tiny organelles called mitochondria break down carbohydrate and sugar molecules to provide energy. These organelles are alive and are constantly at work but only while the plant is alive, not cooked. Therefore, consuming food that has life in it holds an immense benefit for humans. I heard from many people that when they stopped eating cooked food, the very first change they noticed was the dramatic increase of in their energy level.

Wild animals intuitively prefer fresher, more alive foods. If given a choice, goats, rabbits, or horses would always go for green grass over hay. We can find numerous examples in nature when various creatures sustain themselves solely on live food. For example, a snail-eating caterpillar from Maui feeds exclusively on live snails. Most spiders consume exclusively live flies and other bugs, and would never eat dead insects. If you have ever possessed a lizard as your pet, you know that lizards would rather die from hunger than eat a dead bug, even a freshly caught one. A cheetah eats only fresh meat, consuming just enough to satisfy its hunger.

Of course there are some animals like vultures, flies, or other scavengers that eat rotten food. However, even those animals do not cook their food. They still get life from their meal but in a different form, from microorganisms. Their bodies have adjusted to digesting decaying food. These creatures usually have a particularly high concentration of stomach acid capable of killing pathogenic bacteria.

Wild creatures that eat their natural foods almost never develop degenerative diseases. Contrary to that, it has become almost normal for domesticated animals to develop cancer, diabetes, arthritis and other illnesses that are typical for humans. A growing number of vets are stating that processed pet food is the main cause of illness and premature death in the modern dog and cat. In December 1995, the British Journal of Small Animal Practice published a paper contending that processed pet food suppresses the immune system and leads to liver, kidney, heart and other diseases. This research, initially conducted by Dr. Tom Lonsdale, was researched further by the Australian Veterinary Association, and was proven to be correct (1).

Dr. Kollath, of the Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm, headed a study done on animals. When young animals were fed cooked and processed foods they initially appeared to be healthy. However, as the animals reached adulthood, they began to age more quickly than normal and also developed chronic degenerative disease symptoms. A control group of animals raised on raw foods aged less quickly and were free of degenerative disease. In nature, we see another example of wild animals eating entirely enzyme rich raw foods being free of the degenerative diseases that afflict humans (2).

I believe the time has come to finally recognize the most important ingredient in our food–-life, this invisible, yet precious quality, and its significance in the realm of health.

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirlian_photography
1 Optimum Animal Nutrition and Complementary and Alternative Therapies in Veterinary Medicine http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/
2  http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/