Thursday, July 8, 2010

The Egg Has Many Faces!

I am writing this piece as a request from a good friend. This friend eats a diet of mostly raw foods and very occasionally eats a little bit of cooked. The one non-vegan food he eats is raw egg yolks. He uses the organic, brown eggs. This may seem like a strange topic for me to write. I learned this from my teacher and I've shared it with people that have difficulty sustaining themselves on an all vegan diet. Or a diet of all raw vegetables and fruits. The egg yolks have something to offer.

Back To The Egg! (A title of a solo album by Sir Paul McCartney)
Lets talk about the many ways an egg can be useful, especially to vegans or "mostly vegan" folks. The egg in its nature, meaning raw is a mucusless food. Keep in mind how all nutritional value in food is determined. In a raw state! Once a food is cooked the nutritional value is now permanently altered. Denatured. What is alive in any given food dies upon being cooked. It seems that 118 degrees is the temperature where things begin to die or become compromised, this happens over a fairly short period.

This Is No Yolk!
There's a craze going on for some time now. The "egg white craze." This is born of the gym trainer mentality. The trainers that don't know any better, talk the high protein game. And they love those egg whites. Here's something I've talked about for years. Egg whites are used for carpenters glue! What makes up the egg whites is known as albumen. Modern doctors believe that albumen is an important protein, while Professor Arnold Ehret believed albumen is waste product in the human body. Either way you eat them, cooked or raw, the egg white is a rough food on the human body.

Wow! All That In This Little Egg?
It appears to me when looking deeper into albumen that upon being heated the protein becomes denatured. Which we already know happens. The difference here is that when the albumen is heated, it becomes less poisonous. In both states it is a coagulator. Meaning, it binds water. This is a good thing for the blood if you want to regulate the way drugs are absorbed into the body. This slows down or tempers the speed at which drugs are transported and therefore absorbed. This is why egg whites are so constipating. Remember the ideals we use to measure our food values? This is based on how the albumen in our blood plasma acts. We just go ahead and assume that a cooked egg white is beneficial. Like whey—if it's protein it's good! I say not at all.

Remember When White Foods Weren't On The "Healthy List?"
The best ways to consume eggs are as follows: Poached or soft boiled. The reason being, the whites must be cooked as to not be poisonous. Oh yeah, forgot to mention that. Cooking the egg whites makes them far less poisonous and somewhat, slightly digestible. When they are raw they just gunk up the blood stream. Cooked, the egg whites are highly acidic, sticky, mucus forming and very slow to digest. When we poach or soft boil and egg, we don't overcook the yolk and we don't under-cook the whites. The whites are passable and the yolks are still beneficial. Once we fully cook the yolk we lose all that is beneficial. Lets also consider that the whites are lacking all of the fat soluble vitamins, such as A, D, E, K, and contain zero carotenoids.

Egg-celent!
What is beneficial in the yolk? When the yolk is raw all the B vitamins, the fatty acids, useful fat, etc. The ray yolk is packed with nutrients and contains 100% of all the carotenoids, which are organic pigments. There are about 600 known carotenoids, which are primarily found in plants, or more so in algae. This is a result of photosynthesis. Avocados are also very helpful for our absorption of carotenoids. Cultures that eat foods rich in carotenoids (fruits & vegetables) have lower mortality rates. Carotenoids can also act like anti-oxidants. They also protect the eyes from macular degeneration. The presence of carotenoids absorbs, directly damaging blue and near ultra-violet light.

To Egg Or Not To Egg! (This does not pertain to Holloween or Egging as a practice)
To take the raw egg yolk and receive this kind of support makes sense to me. I don't use egg yolks because when I transitioned to a vegan diet I did not need the support. Perhaps my heritage ate a diet rich in fruits and veggies, making my transition and easy one. But for those who come from other regions of the world , where the diet was more of a meat and starch nature, the need for raw egg yolks could be important. Just because this food is healthy doesn't mean it must be consumed. It means it should be considered, if you feel you need something more. The benefits can be very helpful. It will give a sluggish person some "get up and go" or someone feeling as though they are lethargic or low energy a lift.

Try it! You Might Like It!
My position on this topic is: If it works, go for it! If it's not necessary, then stick to what's working. You see, we don't have to be vegan, but we should try to be as healthy as we can be. Because I'm vegan for so many years I simply won't revert. But for those considering the transition over to a vegan diet and or lifestyle, I highly recommend this helpful food. It can be used blended in a fresh veggie juice with carrots for a real carotenoid blast! Carrots are very rich in carotene a non-oxygenated version of carotenoids. Which is beta carotene. This is why they talk about carrots being good for the eyes. If you are a long time vegan and have never needed the support from egg yolks, then don't worry about this for you. Keep it in mind for friends transitioning to a vegetarian or vegan diet.

Raw yolks can be used in dressings, ala Cesare salad dressing. Or you can eat a salad, with no nuts, seeds or avocado. Then eat a poached or soft boiled egg with no bread or starch of any kind. This is a good way to stabilize while transitioning. Or this can be kept in the diet for as long as you feel you need it.

When Is Nutrition, Nutrition?
Isn't it funny? When you think of how eggs, as they are consumed by most people (fried, or cooked very well in fat) are on the list of no-nos where cholesterol or unhealthy fat is concerned. Yet simply discard the whites and take the yolks raw and you've got yourself the super-food they were once considered to be! It's simple: Nothing is as it seems. What we are told about food is based on the ideal properties of the food. Not the properties after the food has been exposed to heat for the purposes of cooking. What is useful to humans in food should be taken in its raw state! Once we cook it, we change it. Broccoli isn't broccoli once cooked, it's cooked broccoli! Get it? A note about super foods. Animal foods were considered "super foods" by anthropologists, because these foods contained a high amount of "nutrients." When are these nutrients available and useful to us? IN A RAW STATE ONLY!

Gimme Some Truth! (Song title by the late & great John Lennon)
You all know I'm not a cheerleader for all raw or even all vegan. I'm a cheerleader for truth. What is truth for me may not be truth for you. However, I know this beyond the shadow of a doubt, all nutrition based thinking, all food values, all vitamin head mentality is based on the value of the foods before they are destroyed by heat. So don't go running out to spend your money on the next "super food" Dr. Phil talks about or Oprah has talked about. Take into consideration how that food is often taken. If they're talking about fruits and veggies, which can be eaten raw, great! If they're talking about starches and proteins—ask yourself if you can eat those foods raw. If the answer is no, you don't need them as foods.

All We Need Is. . .
All we need is what can be eaten raw. Not what NEEDS to be cooked in order to be consumed. Remember, cooked food is secondary as part of our regular diet. One final word on taste. You'd be surprised how good these yolks can taste when blended into a fresh veggie juice with carrots. I hear it tastes like a milk shake! Anyway, good luck and if you try this, write me and tell m what you think. I'd love to know your feedback. Write me at info@releasenyc.com.
Be well,
Tom DeVito


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Please feel free to comment or ask questions or challenge. All is welcome. All comments will be responded to politely! Be well. Tom DeVito