10 questions for david wolfe

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Ten Questions for David

WolfeAsked by the Institute of Integrative Nutrition

December 2006 Copyright www.TheBestDayEver.com

1. How do you feel about whole grains? Where do wholegrains fit into the raw food diet? As someone whochose to convert to a 100% raw diet, do you believe thatwhole grains are not an essential food?

DW: Whole grains are part of the grass family.They are grass seeds that have been throughthousands of years of human breeding. I believefrom experience eating wild grasses in manydifferent climates all over the world that grass is anatural human food and therefore so are grassseeds.

Every major world army from the beginning ofhistory all the way until World War II was a grain-fed army. Standard rations included a pouch of rawgrain (wheat berries, etc.) worn on the belt for everysoldier. If you ran out of food, then each soldierwould eat the grain raw. No cooking. No sprouting.Eat the grain raw.

This is the truth about grain. They, like every otherfood, are meant to be eaten raw. You simply put theraw grain in your mouth (e.g. hard winter wheatberries) and start chewing. At first the grain is hard,but it quickly softens; then becomes chewable andultimately digestible. It actually tastes pretty good.

Eating any kind of green vegetables and/or wildplants after chewing up raw grain is fine. However,eating fruit after chewing up raw grain will cause

problems because the raw grain has an amylaseinhibitor that inhibits your bodys ability to producethe sugar splitting enzyme amylase.

2. Im wondering how to incorporate raw foods during thewinter season. Can you suggest a few raw winterrecipes?


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DW: Winter raw foods:HoneyNutsSeedsRoots (onions, garlic)

ApplesSauerkrautDried FruitsCured Fruits (olives)SeaweedSprouts (grow them in your windowsill)Certain Fruits (citrus is in season in the winter)

Recipes? Hmmmwell that is not my strong suit asI am a blender chef, so Ill give you one recipe forfood and one for drink:

Starving In A Wood Cabin In The ForestSauerkraut-Garlic Delight:

Makes 1 Bowl for 1 Person:

Garlic (1 or 2 diced cloves)Sprouts (2 or 3 heaping tablespoons)Sauerkraut (1 or 2 heaping tablespoons)Hempseed Butter (1 or 2 tablespoons)Hempseed Oil (2 or 3 tablespoonsI like a lot

of oil)Walnuts (6 walnuts)

Hot Chocolate with Raw Cacao:

Makes 1 Pitcher for Several People:

Make nearly a pitcher of your favorite tea. Ipersonally like herbs from the Amazon and/orCentral American forests (i.e. Pau DArco, CatsClaw, Vanilla, Cacao skins, etc.) due to theirfamiliarity with cacao which is from the sameregion.

Blend your favorite tea into the following:Cacao Nibs (3 tablespoons)Cacao Butter (1 tablespoon)Honey (1 or 2 tablespoons)Maca (1 or 2 teaspoons)


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Almond Milk (rawuse as you like)

3. While you recommended eating cucumbers whiletraveling, I'm sure there's more you eat at these times.Can you give us some real specifics for how to do the

'raw' lifestyle while traveling and when visiting others?

DW: Here is a list of the raw foods I typically travelwith:

Cacao beans (with skins)Cacao nibsGoji berriesSchizandra berriesCacao butterVanilla beans

Nori seaweedCucumbersOranges

Here are some other things I take with me:Medicinal Mushrooms

Aged Garlic Extracts (Kyolic Vegetarian formula)Camu Camu berry powderMSM (methyl-sulfonyl-methane) powderKrill Oil (best overall sourceSalt (Celtic, Himalayan, Eden Hot Springs, etc.)

Daily Routine while traveling:Usually when I wake up in the morning I drink a literto a liter and a half of the best water I can find.Sometimes I will add pinch of Celtic sea salt,Himalayan salt or Eden Hot Springs salt to mywater.

During my next round of water (breakfast), I will adddried herbs and/or herbal extracts to the water, mixit and drink that.

Ill snack on seeds (usually pumpkin) and fruits(usually low in sugarsuch as goji berries)throughout the day. If I am really stretched thin onfood, Ill eat cacao nibs, goji berries, raw cacaobutter and schizandra berries. Sometimesvegetables too, if they are of good quality.


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For dinner, it will be either a cacao-basedsuperfood smoothie containing about 10-15ingredients (coconuts, cacao, goji berries, spirulina,honey, bee pollen, maca, medicinal mushrooms,

etc.) or a salad with lots of variety (parsley, lettuce,olives, hemp seeds, dulse, kelp, olive oil, avocados,tomatoes, cucumber, etc.). It depends on whereone is traveling and what is available.

4. Where can we get a copy of that very disturbingpesticide list you were reading from? What is it called?

DW: My very capable assistant Dianne found it afew years ago and luckily printed it, before it laterdisappeared. Now you might be able to find it

onlinegood luck!

The document is called:Food and Drug AdministrationTotal Diet StudySummary of Residues FoundOrdered by Food Market Baskets 91-399-1September 2000

5. What are some foods that you would suggest for a rawbaby (besides bananas & avocados)?

DW: Hemp seedsSoaked goji berriesSoaked or fresh figsBlueberriesLettuceCold-processed Coconut oilCold-processed Olive oilHomemade apple sauceSpirulina (after one year)

Small infants (under two years old) do not have acompletely developed liver, so they are far lesscapable than adults in their ability to digest bittercompounds found in many plants/herbs.

Also, raw honey is a no for children under one, buta definite yes for children between 5-10. Youngchildren, under one, cannot detoxify a certain very


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rare toxic organism that is found in some honeys.Children between 5-10, who eat honey, have higherIQs.

6. With all of the oceans and seas becoming

increasingly contaminated, should we be at all concernedabout consuming sea vegetables?

DW: Yes, you should be concerned. I mainly useMaine Sea Coast Vegetable products. They arecertified organic seaweed and they routinely testtheir seaweed for industrial contaminants. Otherthan Maine Sea Coast, I get my seaweeds fromQuebec or Iceland.

7. I noticed that a lot of the raw foods are dehydrated.

Other than the obvious decrease in water content, doesthis alter the mineral and antioxidant composition?

DW: Dehydration probably has no effect on the twoitems mentioned in the question: minerals andantioxidants. Vitamins can be destroyed bydehydration. B vitamins, due to their watersolubility, may also be affected.

Enzymes are not affected by dehydration.

8. What are the benefits of juicing vegetables rather thaneating them raw?

DW: Juicing is like taking a supplement. Within 20minutes of drinking a fresh vegetable juice, thenutrients are in your arteries and veins. Also, theabsorption rate of juice is 99%, whereas, even thebest human digestive systems in the world areclaimed to only absorb 40% of the food value eatendaily. Therefore, juices can recharge andrejuvenate quickly; whereas when we eat food,energy is required to digest (digestion is thenumber one zapper of energy) and less than 40%of the food value will be liberated.

Blending food is also valuable as it breaks fiberdown, making digestion easier. The entire premisebehind digestion is turning our food into a liquid. Weoften hear that cooking tomatoes increases the


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available lycopene antioxidant content by fivetimes. Blending tomatoes also increases theavailable lycopene antioxidant content by fivetimes. Blending however avoids the heat/oxidation,as well as water and enzyme damaging properties

of cooking.

9. Can you explain how, as a vegan, you came to eatants? Do you feel like you would eat other animals ifthey had the nutritional value that ants do?

DW: The research on Vitamin B12 and veganism isclear and well documented. I had been a strictvegan for the better part of 15 years and I didnthave a Vitamin B12 deficiency (no symptoms), butwas at a level that was considered low.

I think laboratory-created supplements are great forsome people, but I was personally never reallycomfortable taking them (too artificial).

Due to studying herbal medicine and ants ingeneral, I came to discover that in many herbalsystems (especially Chinese medicine) certainvarieties of ants are given the highest rankings asfood-herbs (as high or higher than ginseng, gojiberries, reishi mushroom, etc.).

I enjoy the ethics of Daoism and the great Chineseherbalists who had a desire to preserve life andavoid killing whenever possible, but there is anawareness that everyone is unique and needscertain types of nutrition at certain times in oneslife, this may include animal food. Built into theherbal backbone of Chinese medicine is thisimportant life preserving ethical consideration.

Although considered an animal, ants (to me) do notrank in the field of consciousness where mammalsrank.

I personally would not kill a mammal, reptile or birdto live. Killing conscious animals creates badkarma.

10. For someone who would like to adopt a 100% raw dietfor the first time, what are some easy transition foods that


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you recommend?

DW: Transition to Organic food first.

Second, transition to as much raw food as you

feel is comfortable and/or do a raw-foodcleanse.

Third, here are some helpful foods to add:Goji berriesCacaoGreen juicesYoung coconuts (really fun)Organic fresh saladsCelery juiceVegetable snacks (cut up carrots, celery, etc.)

Seaweed (especially kelp)Blended soups (avocado, lemon, pumpkinseeds, parsley, bell pepper, dulse, olive oil, seasalt, etc.)

Foods to be careful of overeating duringtransition:NutsDried FruitsNut buttersBread or bread-like products (e.g. pretzels,potato chips, tortilla chips, etc.)

Below is a list of great transition dishes youcan find in some raw-food recipe books and inmost raw-food restaurants :Raw Vegan Ice CreamRaw PastaRaw Lasagna (incredible!)Raw Pizza

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