The importance of live food versus dead food cannot be underestimated when it comes to nutrition and healing. The difference can be summed up in one word: enzymes. All living animal and plant cells produce enzymes. Life cannot exist without enzymes. Therefore, live food is food in its raw form—raw fruits, vegetables and meats.
Dead food is anything that doesn’t contain enzymes or in which the enzymes are destroyed or removed, such as packaged and processed products. Food packaging companies remove the enzymes from the food to increase shelf life, which is why it can sit on grocery store shelves or at home for weeks without spoiling. The food is dead, and it can be stored for a long period of time without rotting. Dead food is great for convenience, and essential to modern living, but it is not beneficial to health.
Contrary, a dozen apples in a box placed on a shelf for a month will spoil. Live food contains enzymes. When an apple falls off a tree and hits the ground, a bruise will form on the spot where the apple hit the ground because the impact of the fall destroys and bursts open cells. Inside the cells are enzymes to digest the apple. Therefore, the bruise is a result of enzymes working to digest the apple. Enzymes are what bring the raw fruits or vegetables to ripen, and when left undisturbed, the enzymes will digest them completely.
When it comes to food, enzymes are sensitive structures. When food is cooked above 118 degrees, the enzymes in live food are destroyed. Consuming raw fruits and vegetables is not difficult to do, but when it comes to raw meat, cooking is recommended. When eating cooked or dead food, taking a digestive enzyme can be helpful to support normal digestion.
The American Chiropractor magazine has called Dr. Howard Loomis “The Father of Enzyme Nutrition.” In his book, Enzymes: The Key to Health, Loomis says, “We are very careful to replace the vitamins and minerals lost in the processing of food, (yet) we do not replace the more important food enzymes. Vitamin and mineral deficiencies produce acute symptoms, while food enzyme deficiencies are more insidious, producing chronic degenerative changes.”
A simple way to support the body’s healing process is to consume more live food and take food enzyme supplements for improved digestion and inflammatory support.