Our streets are crammed with coffee, donut, and fast food establishments due to our insatiable desire for quick, convenient energy-on-the-go. They solve the convenience problem and provide a short term energy solution through stimulation. Unfortunately, consumption of stimulating, nutrient-deficient food can occur for only a limited time before the body becomes either exhausted or sick.
Getting the Most From Your Food
Even healthy whole foods have limited usable nutrition without efficient absorption and assimilation. Fortunately, getting maximum return on your eating (i.e. most energy value from your food) is simpler than you might think. As a general rule, the less done to your food, the better its return will be. Raw, plant-based whole foods are ideal because their enzymes remain intact.Enzymes are catalysts necessary for most biological processes to occur at significant rates, and digestion is one of the main biological processes affected. Put simply, enzymes are a key component to maximizing energy return from the foods you eat. Many of these important enzymes are destroyed when foods are cooked or processed. When these enzymes are missing from an ‘unnatural’ food, the body must create them before the food can be absorbed and assimilated. This creates more work, and subsequently more stress, for the body.
