Nicole

Hello, everybody. Okay. Imagine biting into a juicy, sun-ripened mango or savoring the crispness of a freshly picked salad topped with vibrant, homegrown sprouts. Raw and living foods not only delight your taste buds, but they also nurture your body with an abundance of vital enzymes, vitamins, and minerals. From zesty zoodles made from spiralized vegetables to potent fermented veggies to decadent raw chocolate desserts, raw and living foods offer a vast array of culinary and nutritional delights. When you add more raw foods to your plate, you take advantage of the special kind of vitality that they offer and let your taste buds dance to the rhythm of nature. I'm Nicole D'Andrea Russert, Food Revolution Network's dietitian and recipe developer, and we'll be joined today with nutrition expert Vesanto Melina, who's a dietitian, and we are going to have a vitalizing conversation on the power of raw and living foods. So just for a little bit of information about this project, this project is a Whole Life Club initiative, which is Food Revolution Network's ongoing membership community. Some of the questions that I will be bringing to this interview come from our Whole Life Club members. Nothing you hear today is medical advice. We are offering coaching and our best insights. Always consult with a qualified health care professional regarding your specific health care needs. Now, moving on to the wonderful Vesanto Melina, who is one of my personal just gosh, how do I say in the nutrition world? I just have looked up to you, a mentor in the nutrition world. And I just appreciate her so much for being here. She's a renowned speaker, educator, author and consultant in the field of vegetarian nutrition. She has conducted workshops on vegetarian nutrition for dietitians across North America and has taught at the University of British Columbia and Vassar University. Vesanto is a consultant to the government of British Columbia and provides regular guidance to government, industry, and individual clients. She is lead author of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics' latest position paper on vegetarian diets and has received prestigious awards for her contributions to dietetics. Vesanto has co-authored several books, including Plant Power Protein, Becoming Vegan, and Becoming Raw. Alongside her scientific expertise, she takes joy in creating healthy, delicious, and easy to prepare food. Learn more about Vesanto on her website, nutrispeak.com. That's N-I-T-R-I speak, S-P-E-A-K.com. Welcome, Vesanto.

Vesanto Melina

Thank you, Nicole. It's a pleasure. Yeah.

Nicole

So excited about this conversation today. I know all of our members are excited, and I am equally excited to learn from you. So let's dive into the questions. And this is a question that we hear often, and I'm confused about the difference. Even though the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, there are some differences between raw and living foods. So can you tell us how those two terms differ?

Vesanto Melina

Okay. Well, when we use raw foods, it means they haven't been heated above 118 degrees Fahrenheit or 48 degrees centigrade. And that could be, for example, in a dehydrator, they could be a little bit warmed up. Living foods has a slightly different focus, although we focus again on raw foods. But here we are interested in enzymes and sprouting and probiotics, enzyme activity. So, the living food diets have nuts and seeds that have been fermented. And I remember when I was exploring this, I had my whole counters in the kitchen all full of things that were soaking and sprouting and dehydrating. Whereas with raw foods, it's more just plant foods that are not cooked.

Nicole

Wonderful. So would you say that you need counter space to do this, or can you make do with smaller spaces?

Vesanto Melina

Well, I had a fair amount. And boy, there was a lot of seeds and nuts and all kinds of things. It was fun, though. It was interesting. Yeah. Yeah. I love that.

Nicole

1. Thank you for explaining that. That definitely clarifies. So raw foods, what are some of the nutrients that you suggest that people can get through raw foods that you can't get through cooked foods?

Vesanto Melina

Okay, well, particularly, we want vitamin C and E. For vitamin C, we get that from citrus, from many raw fruits, many vegetables, things like oranges, which we certainly wouldn't want to heat even to 118 degrees Fahrenheit, and colored peppers, red peppers are superstars for vitamin C, many, many vegetables and fruits. For vitamin E, we want nuts and seeds and avocados. And again, we don't want those heated because it'll damage the vitamin E and the fats. Now, we can get all the protein, the minerals, the other vitamins, either way, cooked or raw. There's little differences. Sometimes cooked is even a little bit better. And there can be losses in cooking water, but there can be also losses in soaking water. So cooking and raw, they can be considered fairly similar.

Nicole

And what about living foods? What are the nutritional benefits of sprouting and soaking and dehydrating?

Vesanto Melina

Well, interestingly, I got to go to the Ann Wigmore Original Healing Center in Rincon, Puerto Rico, about 17 years ago. And they had a really amazing arrangement. They were helping people heal from chronic conditions or lose excess weight. And they had a lot of blended items, juices. And the interesting thing that was explored there was that when juices are blended or when raw vegetables are juiced, the cells are broken and enzymes are released. So the actual digestive process begins immediately, even before it gets to your stomach. And this can help with absorption, which was helpful for those who had gastrointestinal problems or really needed a boost of nutrition. And so these were highly nutritious, highly, highly nutritious, low calorie foods. They had a big sprouting area. It was under, it was covered and they had fans going all the time. So things didn't get moldy, but it was really interesting.

Nicole

Wow. I bet that was an amazing experience.

Vesanto Melina

It was amazing. And these living foods seem to work. And another book that I did was the Raw Food Revolution Diet with Sherry Soria. And she's shown here in her seventies.

Nicole

Wow.

Vesanto Melina

She was doing ultra marathons.

Nicole

Wow.

Vesanto Melina

And still is. And she started this raw chef school in Fort Bragg, California, but she did it because she was so inspired by going to Ann Wigmore's. She saw some amazing healing happening. Somebody had come with arthritis and two weeks later they could run down the beach and there were, you know, people healing from various chronic conditions. So it was very inspiring situation. So I taught at this raw chef school. for a number of years up until COVID. So did Brenda Davis.

Nicole

So inspiring. I know a lot of folks are going to feel inspired just hearing that. And I'm sure we'll be excited to continue listening to the conversation to see how they can start implementing raw into their own diets. Which brings me to the next question. A lot of people think about raw foods as an all or nothing thing. Some try to eat 100% raw and find that it may be time consuming, maybe it doesn't fit into their lifestyle. Do you think that the raw diet, the benefits from the raw diet come with being exclusively raw, or do you think just adding some raw foods to your plate can be beneficial?

Vesanto Melina

Certainly adding some raw foods is a really good idea for a lot of people, raw vegetables and fruits, nuts, seeds, that kind of thing. Now, some interesting, things we found when we were writing the Becoming Raw book, we went through the research. I think we had 1,200 research articles that we looked at for that book. It's got a lot of research in it, and it was interesting. So while we were teaching at the school, we and also the school kind of shifted our concepts that 100% raw wasn't necessary and it didn't necessarily work for everybody, that going to 75% raw would be ideal for a lot more people. And we found, for example, there was a big study in Germany called the Giesen study, where participants were, it was during a time of a real enthusiasm for raw foods, Yet the people who were 100% raw turned out to be anemic in many cases. 43% of the men and many of the women who were of childbearing age, 70% had menstrual irregularities and 23% had stopped menstruating. They just weren't getting quite enough iron and protein. And the body was going, okay, well, we'll use it for the heart and the cells, but we can't afford to have menstruation. or, you know, it was really interesting to see that. So over time, I found that it was way better to be like 75% raw or 50% raw and then boost the protein and the iron with some legumes, some beans, peas, lentils, that kind of thing. Also, I found for myself, for example, I tend to have trouble with blood sugar fluctuations, and it's better for me to include some legumes to try and keep my blood sugar level. So high raw diets have 50 to 75% raw, and officially it's considered that a raw food diet could have 75% or more raw.

Nicole

Okay, that's good. I think that helps to explain and also maybe alleviate some of the pressure that some people feel when considering raw, that they need to be all raw. And it's good to hear about your own personal experience too. And I think it also paints the picture that everybody is so individualized. So listening to your body and doing what's great.

Vesanto Melina

I've seen a few people who could be 100% raw and they could get their protein up to the recommended intake. I've looked at Doug Graham's diet. Like he had 16 bananas for lunch. And but this is a person that runs a lot. So his caloric intake was like 3,500 calories and he just barely got the protein up to the recommended intake. I had another client who could run the West Coast Trail in a day. That's like a four day hike. And she but she was 100% raw. But these were people who were eating a lot of calories and so their protein and iron got up to the recommended intake. But most of us at 2000 calories or 1800 or whatever, we won't get enough protein and iron.

Nicole

Right, right. Okay, that makes sense. Like those with like the higher activity levels and are eating a lot of calories are able to get there. Gosh, I'm inspired to incorporate all this raw food to help with my running. I'm going to run that west side trail. It sounds lovely. Okay, so now that we've discussed what the percentages are and what it might look like to receive some of the benefits from eating raw, what are some simple steps that you would recommend that people can take to start adding raw and living foods to their diet?

Vesanto Melina

Okay, well, I certainly shifted my own way of eating when I learned more about this to a kind of high raw or partly mainly raw. But I start every day with a smoothie and I put kale, oranges or juice, banana, I have some frozen bananas, just part of the banana and hemp seeds for protein and have that every day. And it's a really easy, good start to the day. Another thing that people can do is make, we have in becoming raw, green giant juice, which has kale, romaine, cucumber, apple, celery, lemon. That's a very nutritious juice. And the calcium's absorbed really well. Also, I found when I was at Living Light and connecting with the staff there and all the people, people made huge salads. Like it could be a wheelbarrow. Well, not quite, but pretty close. And they would have all kinds of things on them and it would take a while to eat, but they were very nutritious, pretty simple. Now, I tend to make a good salad about every three days, and I have a big, big container that I can keep in the fridge with a tight fitting lid. And so it doesn't have tomatoes and red peppers in it. This can be added at the last minute, but it has all the leafy greens. And so it's good to have a good knife, a cutting board, a big container, and you can even grow leafy greens on your balcony or the garden, and then a lemon tahini dressing. And then another thing that people can do if they want is to put all sorts of things that you put in a salad in a blender and make, we have a V8 vegetable soup there. And so it helps to have the right kind of containers and a good knife, but it can, it can end up being pretty simple. Now I mentioned I also add some kind of protein to that huge salad.

Nicole

Yes, to keep you sustained. Yeah, those salads sound delicious. And foods have such variety in them. And we're always saying variety is so important. So in the raw form, it could be even better. But what are some of the common misconceptions about raw and living foods and how can we navigate them to ensure a balanced and nutrition diet?

Vesanto Melina

Well, one misconception that I found with some people was that cooked food is poison. Really, people were thinking that, you know, that raw is way better. And in some cases, it is way better, many cases, but a cooked food is also valuable, has some value. In fact, when I knew Sherry, she had not turned her oven on ever since they bought the house, which was decades.

Nicole

Wow.

Vesanto Melina

Had not turned it on. But then she got to like a few things that were heated, like baked yams or maybe some kind of protein food. And she's an ultra-marathon runner, right? And so anyway, it was interesting, this kind of evolution, just to add something and that that was okay. Another concept is that all raw foods are safe. In fact, buckwheat greens have a toxic substance called Fagopyrin that can lead to your skin being really sensitive and itchy. Mushrooms shouldn't be eaten raw, some of them, and certainly in not large amounts. Raw beans, those cows can eat them and different animals. They contain anti-nutrients. We do not want to be eating raw beans. We can eat sprouted lentils and mung beans. Those are okay. With the sprouting, these anti-nutrients go away. One other misconception was that we need the enzymes in raw plant foods to digest food that our body couldn't make enough, but actually our body does fine. Our pancreas produces lots of digestive enzymes. And so it can work really well without, though the body, the enzymes in plant foods, the raw foods can help a bit. And they can get things going before it hits the stomach, before food passes through the acid environment of the stomach and our body's enzymes, they get to work really fine.

Nicole

Mm. So is that part of the process that you were explaining? Like say, for example, juicing is breaking down the cell wall and it's already starting that digestive process within the plant.

Vesanto Melina

Right. Yeah. It's interesting. And that seems to help for some people that are having troublesome digestive processes or that are borderline about absorbing nutrients. Mm.

Nicole

Yeah. Fascinating. Well, thank you for debunking those myths. Those are some questions I had as well. So I'm glad to hear your take on them. Moving into some of our member questions, we had some great questions from our- We did.

Vesanto Melina

Yeah. I thought they were really interesting. Good work, everybody. Yeah. Really.

Nicole

Good. So Nina D. says, I'm wondering if eating 100% raw, does that mean not consuming potatoes, grains, and legumes, which we were just talking about, how do you replace the nutrition from these food groups? Does that also mean eating a lot more as it's harder to feel full and satisfied? Do you consume a lot more nuts and avocados? I think you addressed this some, but do you want to address her question?

Vesanto Melina

Yeah, okay. So potatoes are not eaten raw. They've got something called Solanine. And lectins also can upset your stomach and make you feel awful if you eat raw potatoes. So don't bother with that one. If you want to eat potatoes, cook them. And grains and seeds, on the other hand, can be sprouted, like wheat, barley, kamut, spelt, rye, you just put them covered in water, put them in a sprouting jar, rinse them for a couple of days, a couple of times a day. And some people like sprouted barley for breakfast, for example. And then these sprouted grains can be made into crackers. So this is when I had all my stuff spread out all over the place. Oat groats, on the other hand, have been heat treated and they're not raw and won't sprout. There are hardly any actual raw oat groats on the market. Now, when we get to legumes, another one you asked about, just the lentils and mung beans could be soaked and sprouted and not the bigger beans. They will really give you indigestion if you try and eat them. Even soaked, there's still a lot of anti-nutrients there. Hmm. Now, one thing she asked about if you could get all the nutrients. In our Becoming Raw book, I worked out 2000 calorie menus. Always the menus I work out meet the recommended intakes of everything. So one, for example, had 60 grams of protein, just barely met it and met other nutrients, but it was really tricky. And it took about three quarters of a cup of nuts, seeds, and tahini, so they're fairly high. and seed intakes. So I found for meeting higher protein intakes, and some people need a bit more than 60 grams, I found it so much easier to use cooked legumes.

Nicole

Yeah, yeah, okay. That makes sense. And I was surprised at all the grains that could be sprouted.

Vesanto Melina

Yeah.

Nicole

We have buckwheat, but I actually didn't know about kamut and spelt, and that's really great to know, and I think it helps to add more diversity. into the raw food diet. Great. Okay, so Tamalin Epp says, I have a question regarding sprouts. I recall eating sprouts raw many years ago. They used to be very common on salad bars. In the past few years, I've heard lots of concerns about not consuming raw sprouts because of bacteria or other issues. What is your recommendation regarding eating raw sprouts if they're grown at home in a stacked tray style sprout container? Are they okay wrong, or should they be lightly steamed? And if they're cooked, how does that impact their nutritional content?

Vesanto Melina

Okay, well, there used to be more sprouts on salad bars, and I think people have become very cautious. We, of course, think about, the animal products is having huge problems with salmonella or E. coli. There can be animal manure just contaminating all kinds of things. But commercial sprouts can also be contaminated with these bacteria while they're growing from animal manure, during transportation, during human handling. And so people are pretty careful about sprouts now, and they're less likely to be on salad bar, but we're still getting outbreaks once in a while. Now, I haven't heard of outbreaks from homegrown sprouts. Of course, then we wouldn't be getting like 17 people all ill from the same batch, you know, but it's possible if there's contamination because growing things at room temperature really is ideal for growth of microorganisms. And people can carry salmonella in their intestines just like animals do. So when you look at the official websites of, you know, the FDA or whatever, they say sprout should be steamed. But I think a lot of us don't do that and it seems to work out okay. You know, our sprouts are clean, including those that we made at home. And sprouting does increase their vitamin and mineral and mineral availability, enzyme content, but when you steam them, you'd lose some of that.

Nicole

Excellent, thank you for answering all of those questions. I had one follow-up question to that. When you're using sprouts, say you want to add them to a salad and you're eating them raw, should you use tongs or something, not your hands, to put in there just because of the bacteria, the possibility of transferring anything?

Vesanto Melina

Well, that's a good idea. Yeah, they should certainly have that, just in case.

Nicole

Just in case. Yeah. Okay. Susan says, When I had blood work done, my doctor said my omega-6 was a bit high and I should reduce consumption of nuts and seeds. They seem to be such an important source of protein on a plant-based diet, as we've been seeing here. What is your take on omega-6 and nuts and seeds?

Vesanto Melina

Well, we do want a higher ratio of omega-3s. So it's good to have a mix when you're choosing your seeds and nuts to have plenty of the omega-3 rich group. Know which those are? Yeah.

Nicole

Chia, flax.

Vesanto Melina

And walnuts, you got it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so those are nuts to really make sure you include. The omega-6s, we tend to get fats pretty easily. So it's more important just to focus on the omega-3s and then you get a good ratio of high enough threes in relation to the sixes. I guess, if people had really a lot, like I mentioned, the maximum I wanted to go out two and 2,000 calorie menu was three quarters of a cup, which was a lot. Like you could get a lot of omega sixes if you didn't choose these omega three seeds and nuts. So that could happen.

Nicole

Yeah.

Vesanto Melina

And by the way, we have a vegan plate on a couple of websites. One is called Plant poweredprotein.com, that's plant with a dash, poweredprotein.com, and then go to food guide. And it's also on our becomingvegan.ca website. You look for the food guide in both cases. And we recommend very specifically that at least one serving, which could be a quarter cup nuts and seeds, or two tablespoons of tahini, at least that is being very, very helpful.

Nicole

Thank you for that. We will include those links as a part of this. That's great. BJ says, are fermented foods still beneficial if made with conventionally grown foods?

Vesanto Melina

Yes, they would seem perfectly good that way. It's good to get organic, but conventionally grown is fine. Yeah.

Nicole

Yes. Yeah. We always say, you know, if you can get organic and you have access to it, great. If conventional is what works for you, whether it's from an economic standpoint or the accessibility, then go for the conventional fruits and veggies and fermented foods, all the things. Don't omit them completely. Okay, so Heidi says, I have made sprouts and eaten a lot of raw foods for years. However, now I find that I can't stay out of the bathroom when I have any of that. I've had to switch to steaming my greens and carrots and such. I also used to love to make fresh carrot juice and apple juice. So far, her gastroenterologist has no answers as to why this has happened all of a sudden. He just advised her to take Pepto-Bismol tablet twice a day. She says that in the passive way of eating has helped me recover very quickly from various issues, and she misses it. Any suggestions for her?

Vesanto Melina

Okay, well, I can't actually diagnose this. There could be a number of possibilities, and I found with several of the people, they'd had difficulty with digestion. You might have developed irritable bowel syndrome, which syndrome means we don't quite understand it. That's what trouble with some of those things. You might have contaminated water in your water supply, or you could have a lot of bad bacteria in your intestine. And some of this should be medically addressed. By the way, there is a website, plantrition.org, where people can look for plant-based MDs in their area or as close as they can find. So some of these issues are definitely medical.

Nicole

Thank you for that. Those are good thoughts, though, for sure. Yeah, following up with the healthcare for another, sounds like she's seeing somebody, but maybe another one who specializes in plant-based might be, it might be helpful to get a second opinion. Mia says if raw foods retain their enzymes and shouldn't they be easier to digest? Why do I have so much trouble digesting raw veggies? And whenever you inquire online or with a gastroenterologist, they always say cooking veggies makes them easier to digest. Perhaps it's because of the fiber that gets broken down. I'm so confused. I've been whole food plant-based for many years and I always have trouble digesting everything. Sometimes it feels hopeless. Yes, I drink lots of water. I exercise, but the bloat lives on.

Vesanto Melina

Yeah. Well, cooking can make food easier to digest. It changes some of the compounds, and some people have particularly sensitive digestive tracts or they develop them over time. And raw food enthusiasts eat large volumes of food. So that can be a problem. It kind of squishes your digestive tract outward and there's a bit more irritation. And also the fiber that's in all these raw foods can irritate the digestive tract. So that's some of the possibilities. Now, the reason they juiced and blended foods at that center in Puerto Rico was because the absorption could be easier when you do blender juice because the digestive process starts way before it reaches the stomach and intestine.

Nicole

Yes, you mentioned that. It makes sense. And also, would it make sense that by blending and juicing it also, as Mia mentioned, the fibers are broken down, right?

Vesanto Melina

The fibers removed with juicing.

Nicole

Oh, right.

Vesanto Melina

It's not reduced in smoothies, which is why I like my breakfast smoothie. But then I haven't had that stomach gastric irritation sensitivity question for myself. Yeah.

Nicole

Thanks. Thank you, Vesanto. Okay, moving on to Claire's question. She says, I'm sure you get this question often. Where do you get your protein? We've talked lots about the protein challenge.

Vesanto Melina

We got this new book. Oh, they got our protein. Here we go with the light. And Brenda Davis and I just wrote this and we, we didn't plan to write book on protein. Our publisher asked us to, and we said, we don't need to write about protein. It's no big deal. People get enough protein on plant-based diets, but we found it really interesting writing it. And it's, it's actually got to number one in on Amazon in the sustainability category. So we found that there were really a number of issues and questions, certain stages of life where we wanted to be particularly clear. And so this was a very helpful, you know, just covered all these different things. And our plant powered plant dash powered protein website covers that. The We can get enough protein from raw food diets, but I found when I was working out these menus that it could be a bit tricky to get it up high enough. For example, in fruits, I wanted to choose berries particularly because not watermelon or something, because I needed the seeds. It was interesting. Like, fruits don't have that much protein. Nuts, some of them have, walnuts certainly don't. They've got the omega-3s, but hemp seeds. do in the seeds and nuts category. And so certain ones are higher. So I had to be really careful figuring things out. And I help clients with that too when they're tweaking things. The grains are actually half the world's protein comes from grains, but people sometimes don't include those in their raw diets. So, there are lots of vegetables. Lettuce even has a high protein intake, but boy, you've got to eat a lot of lettuce to get and enough calories from protein.

Nicole

Right. I think what you mentioned earlier, the variety of grains that could be sprouted is really helpful. It really opens up the protein opportunities because.

Vesanto Melina

Grains- It does, yeah.

Nicole

That's a good protein source. And your book is amazing. Congrats on getting into the number one spot on Amazon.

Vesanto Melina

I know. And that was because we had our co-author, Brenda's son, Corey, write a chapter. He's a government environmentalist and agrologist. And he wrote a chapter about our food choices and the effect on climate change, water use, water availability, pollution, ground pollution, land use. It was very, very interesting. So that's been fun to see.

Nicole

Amazing. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah, that's been a reference for me. So thank you for writing it. I'm glad that your publisher suggested that she wrote it. Um, okay. Beverly says, is there an upper limit on how many sprouts can be eaten daily? I sprout a lot of seeds, including broccoli and other cruciferous greens, various other greens, including red clover, various legumes, including mung beans and peas. Living in a rural area makes them an inexpensive source of very fresh organic salad produce. And I eat huge salads daily. Could this be too much of a good thing? Great question.

Vesanto Melina

Okay. Well, alfalfa sprouts themselves contain an amino acid. Oh, I've just got a little tickle. When I'm interviewing, I do grapefruit juice because it helps the tickle.

Nicole

Oh, take your time.

Vesanto Melina

So alfalfa sprouts contain L-canavanine, that's not normally a part of our proteins, but our body will start replacing arginine with L-canavanine. And then the protein's wrong. The protein can't do what it's supposed to. So the body builds in this wrong amino acid and it disrupts enzyme activity and metabolism. So the bottom line is you shouldn't. eat several cups of alfalfa sprouts on a routine basis. And people with lupus should avoid alfalfa sprouts entirely. So that one thing, other than that, I don't know of a limit on what you're eating. It's great to have a mix of foods, which is sounds of what you're doing, seeds, greens, vegetables, sprouted legumes, and those huge salads sounds good to me.

Nicole

Yeah. Wonderful. Thank you. Did not know that about alfalfa sprouts. That's pretty interesting and good to know. Because I think that sometimes, you know, we think a food is good for us. We just want to fill our plates up with all of that food, you know, so that.

Vesanto Melina

Back to- That's right. That was the thing about soy. Well, soy got such a bad rap was because of two guys, one who ate 14 servings a day and 120 servings a day. And then all the rumors about soy being bad came out from them. We shouldn't be Focusing so much on a single food. Even total carrot juice has turned a few people orange.

Nicole

Oh, wow. Yeah.

Vesanto Melina

They know. Their skin turned orange. Oh my gosh. Okay.

Nicole

So variety, variety.

Vesanto Melina

Variety is good.

Nicole

Okay. Jude says coconut milk and coconut dried both have saturated fat. Should we include them in our diets?

Vesanto Melina

Okay, well, dried coconut, considered a whole food, is really good as part of a treat, like dessert, with dates, nuts, or nut butters. And we put in our becoming raw macaroons, nut balls, even a pie crust that's based on coconut, along with some of these nut date combinations. I haven't found coconut milk very useful. It's high in saturated fat, but coconut itself can be definitely used and enjoyed.

Nicole

I just had added coconut to a mocha cacao smoothie earlier, and it added like just the right, it wasn't a lot, just a little bit, but just the right amount of like mouthfeel and that coconutty flavor. It really- Oh, nice. Wow. Yeah, so I'm glad to hear you say that. Yeah. Opening the coconut is another story. That's for another conversation.

Vesanto Melina

Oh, yeah.

Nicole

Okay, so Mary says, I prepare a week of porridge ingredients at a time, good for you, Mary, and store them in the fridge, adding liquid when I'm ready to cook a portion. One of the ingredients is chopped up turmeric root. Does it retain its nutrients, or would it be better to chop it up fresh when I'm ready to cook the porridge?

Vesanto Melina

Hmm. Well, if you cook for 15 to 20 minutes, that can damage turmeric's effectiveness as an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compound. I'm not sure how long you cook your porridge. An expert at John Hopkins says it's better to take turmeric from the whole food, by the way, chopped up like you are doing, rather than in pills or tinctures or capsules or gummies. You could add it. You could keep some chopped up and just even add it after you've cooked. But I don't think your method of doing things is going to damage a lot from the turmeric.

Nicole

And what about chopping it up ahead of time? Do you think if it was chopped up and stored?

Vesanto Melina

I didn't see problems with it being destroyed by contact with air. You could keep it in a small container in the fridge. or freezer. Often, we do that and freezing really seems to protect things pretty well.

Nicole

Right, freeze and then take it out as you need it. That sounds like a great idea.

Vesanto Melina

Yeah, that could work.

Nicole

Yeah. Mary says, this allergy season is really tough on a family member with severe bronchial asthma. At the beginning of the year, we transitioned to whole food plant-based and brought air filters, air purifiers, but whatever benefits gained from these changes have been outpaced by the allergy season that seems worse and longer. I feel your pain, Mary. I completely, we were just talking about this saying, you know, sometimes no matter how well you eat and take care of yourself, the allergies just won't stop. So do you have any recommendations on how to use nutrition to reduce the risk of bad air when it spikes up from wildfire, ash, and pollen season?

Vesanto Melina

Okay, yeah. And we are finding this more and more, and I guess with climate change, it's just gonna keep going on that these wildfires are happening so many different places for people who have asthma and those who don't. So I have asthma too. Actually, my dad was a cancer researcher who smoked three packs a day. I got asthma as a kid. bag in the old days. It's just like how we think of bacon as being an okay food to have or hot dogs and they're class one carcinogens. Right. Oh, it's crazy. Anyway, so both my parents smoked and so I have had to be careful. And I got an air doctor after being advised through a webinar hosted by John and Ocean Robbins. And it's great. So every time there's bad air outside, it just leaps into action if we open the door for a bit and air comes in and it cleans the air inside our house. So that's one solution that I found that works. I also found Dr. Neil Bernard in 2020 and his group, it was J Alwarith  et al, 2020 article, The Role of Nutrition in Asthma Prevention and Treatment. And what he recommends are protective fruits and vegetables, which is of course what we're doing. Lots of vitamin C rich foods like the citrus, kiwis, berries, tomatoes, broccoli, vitamin E rich foods, the seeds and the avocados. and the omega-3 fatty acids, which we've listed before, and adequate vitamin D. So just having an overall healthy thing and avoiding dairy products. So these are things that help. I think probably you're doing some of those things already, but yeah, it's a tricky one, asthma.

Nicole

It really is tricky. But all of those plant-based foods are anti-inflammatory, especially the ones that you mentioned. So hopefully they can help support your immune system. Okay. Jeanette says, what is your take? I think I know your answer to this question. What is your take on eating raw cashews and other nuts?

Vesanto Melina

Well, actually, cashews are not raw. They've got something called Urushiol. I'm not sure if I said it right, but it's on the shells of cashews. In fact, the women, I looked at an interesting website on Miyoko's website about how they source their cashews. And a lot of times the women peeling them can get problems with their fingers, with this toxic chemical. So they have to heat cashews a little bit just to make sure that we don't get this compound. And it causes a reaction like poison ivy. So even cashews that are often labeled as raw have been shelled and heat treated through roasting or steaming. So other than that, I think cashews are good. They certainly... helped a lot of us that wanted to be plant-based but didn't want cheese and dairy products. That's really, really helped things a lot. And other raw nuts are completely raw, by the way.

Nicole

And you recommend them. Yeah. Yes. Okay, thank you for that. Anne says I ate almost exclusively, I'm having a hard time pronouncing words today, exclusively raw food for many years in my late 50s and early 60s. I am now 70. Then I began to crave cooked food and soups and made the switch from raw food for one entire winter. I felt so much better. I later found out that a raw food diet is not the way to go for someone whose constitution is essentially warm or dry. For one thing, my metabolism and digestion had difficulty with so much uncooked food. I was cold a lot of the time. Now I eat fruit and salads balanced pretty much with equally cooked food. What is your take on raw food and relationships? to body types.

Vesanto Melina

Okay. Well, as soon as you said that, I thought about Ayurveda and their understanding of body types in India. And the first cookbook I did called Cooking Vegetarian, most of our books are nutrition, but I did a cookbook with a chef from the Four Seasons and our Cooking Vegetarian book, he understood Ayurveda well. And though I spent four years in India, I'm not such an expert in it. But what I realized was that Eastern and Indigenous communities and understandings in health and healing have a lot that we don't know about. From your comments, I appreciate how you are in tune with your body and what it's asking for. And I think that's a really good idea. Really helpful that you're doing that.

Nicole

Yes, the fact that she said she felt so much better.

Vesanto Melina

Yeah, it's good to go with that and not think about some rule that might work for some other person.

Nicole

Right, absolutely. Such a great point. Donna says, which food should I be aware of when trying to lower my protein consumption?

Vesanto Melina

Okay, well, avoid Animal products. So what we find is that the people who are really high in protein, excessive protein, are those consuming animal products. And people on plant-based diet don't need to worry about excess protein unless they're consuming large amounts of protein powders, which are typically unnecessary. A few people might use protein powders. if they're trying to build muscle mass as an athlete or for seniors that have really poor appetites. But we don't usually need to take protein powders.

Nicole

Thank you for that. Denaro asks, are you currently eating raw Vesanto? And if so, I think you did earlier. If so, for how long and what convinced you to do so? You did explain this in the beginning, if you want to.

Vesanto Melina

Okay, well, for about 17 years, I've eaten 75% raw in the warmer half of the year or more, and 50% raw in the winter. I have a raw breakfast, Two-thirds of my plate at lunch and dinner is raw, big salad with lots of stuff in it, and a lemon tahini dressing. And when you ask about how I feel, actually, I'm 81, and I've been vegetarian for 45 years, vegan for 30 years, and high raw for 17 years, and I just keep feeling better and better, so. Something's working.

Nicole

It is definitely working. Yes. I cannot believe you're 81 and you just radiate. So you're definitely an inspiration along with all your knowledge. We appreciate you sharing all this. And gosh, I think the visual, like two thirds of your plate that you just painted was helpful. Like just the visual of seeing two thirds of your plate is raw is kind of like, I just, you know, had an illustration vision in my head that I think will make it easier to follow, you know, adding raw foods to your plate.

Vesanto Melina

That's right. Yeah. Yeah.

Nicole

Another question from Donara. Is it necessary to consume sodium other than that contained in foods themselves on a raw food diet? If so, would something like Bragg's, Aminos, or Miso be enough, or would it have to be something like Celtic sea salt or something similar? What are your recommendations?

Vesanto Melina

Well, Bragg's and Tamari and miso are not actually raw. There's something called Nama shoyu, which is raw. It's kind of like tamari. And the other sources of sodium can be sea vegetables. But of course, there's always the problem about potential pollution there. So we definitely need sodium. And in fact, in history, a long, long time ago, people would hunt around for salt licks. Animals look for salt licks. People in the Gandhi movie, they went to the sea to get salt. You know, there were salt, sort of pieces of salt that they could get. And the word salary arose because Roman soldiers would get salt along with the money they were given for their work. So we need sodium, and even though salt has a bad name, that can be one way to get it, and we should choose iodized salt in that case, I think, rather than the Himalayan or pink salts that are kind of fancy from a culinary perspective, but they don't have iodine. So iodine's another tricky one. So that's an issue kind of related to salt because iodized salt can be one way we get about the right amount. We just need like a quarter teaspoon or something like that. We never know how much iodine or even sodium is in a lot of our plant foods, you know, and so it can be a tricky one. But having iodized salt actually solved some huge problems with goiter being basically eradicated and women who were pregnant with insufficient iodine developed a tragedy of cretinism in their offspring. So we just, need to get a bit of salt and iodized salt can be a good choice, but there are definitely raw because I know some people don't want to use salt because it's got sometimes things that make it not clump together. So. It's a tricky one, that one.

Nicole

It is tricky. I know, I feel like it's weighing out where your priority is. I personally use iodine salt because I don't take a multivitamin. I take Sulfonamides

Vesanto Melina

Oh yeah, yeah. Multivitamins tend to have the right amount and during pregnancy, it's really good to get some reliable source of iodine.

Nicole

Right, yeah. Yeah, that is a tricky question, but I think you.

Vesanto Melina

Guys- Yeah, it is. It's a tricky answer. It's a good question.

Nicole

Great answer. Lance has two questions. I have a question about nuts. What's the difference between soaked, unsoaked, and roasted nuts? I soak natural Brazil nuts, cashews, and almonds overnight for my salad the next day. I also enjoy roasted cashews and almonds. What is the effective nutritional difference between soaked, unsoaked, and roasted?

Vesanto Melina

Okay, well, soaking, I found nutritionally there wasn't much of a difference between soaked and unsoaked. because we lose some minerals into the soaking water, but the absorption might be a little higher. The differences were pretty small, so you could soak nuts if you want or not soak them, and it works out pretty well. Roasting actually can damage the fats in nuts, and especially if you get to high temperatures. So that can be problematic. So the best are, you know, haven't had roasting done to them, but they're raw and you can either soak or not, doesn't matter.

Nicole

Go ahead. Yeah. Lance had another question, which is actually a question I had too as I was soaking some of my nuts recently in preparation for this in our raw food.

Vesanto Melina

Oh yeah, you were doing this? Yeah.

Nicole

Yeah, because I was like, do I add salt or do I not add salt to the soaked nuts? So that was one of Lance's questions too. Why do I add salt to the water with a nut soaked overnight?

Vesanto Melina

Well, I never put in that you should do it. I don't know if it snuck into our book some way, but I didn't notice that.

Nicole

I think it's online. There are a lot of... I guess soaking experts or people who are raw expert. I don't know. I know I saw when I Googled it and you believe everything on when you Google it, just getting different techniques and a lot of people add salt to the water. I think it helps too, well, I don't know that this is true, but what they were saying is that it helps to activate the enzymes.

Vesanto Melina

Yeah.

Nicole

That's what I saw. So is there any truth to that? Do you really?

Vesanto Melina

It'll activate the enzymes a little bit and it's not such a big deal that you need to really think about it a lot. And you lose a few nutrients, you increase your absorption a bit. So I didn't find in terms of the science that there were big advantages, but it could make it a little bit more digestible and absorbable. Yeah, they get kind of softer. easier to chew that kind of thing. But then people dry them a lot of times after they soak them.

Nicole

Right, exactly. That's what I did. And I guess like I did not add salt, so I'm glad to hear you say that.

Vesanto Melina

It's okay.

Nicole

But I imagine from a culinary perspective, it would add like a little bit of a salty flavor as well. And if you use the iodized salt that you mentioned, maybe it would help with some, you know, iodine intake, you know.

Vesanto Melina

That's right. Or you could just add it after you've soaked them a little bit. Because the amount of salt we're considering for a day is about a quarter or three eighths of a teaspoon. And that would give you all the salt and all the iodine. But you don't really need even quite that much because you get some from your food. Yeah, yeah.

Nicole

Wow, okay. Well, that was the last question from our member. I wish we could hang out for another hour and just chat more about this, but I know that you are very busy and you've got lots going on, but I'm very grateful, as I'm sure our members are, that you have all of these books and resources available to us and that you've spent your time here today with us 'cause this has been such an enlightening conversation and you really answered so many questions in detail that I think that you're gonna.

Vesanto Melina

Oh, thanks everybody. And hello all over. I know you're all over the world and it's wonderful for people to be thinking so much and caring for their nutrition in so many different places. Thank you. Thank you.

Nicole

Thank you for being here, Vesanto. We truly appreciate you and all of your contributions to the plant-based nutrition world.

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