healthy foods you can freeze

[music]alright! this is john kohler with okraw.com, today we have another exciting episode foryou, today’s episode’s all about these amazing superfoods man, you guys gotta geton the superfoods, or you’re not going to be a super dude! alright just kidding. anyways,you guys caught me red-handed, i is a super foodist! these are all my superfoods thatactually i bought, i own, and i take sometimes. and although a lot of them, i’ll be thinking“john why’d you get kale man? why’d you get freeze-dried kale, you’re growingkale in your garden?” right? like kale in a bottle’s a piece of junk. well i got itbecause it’s only 5.97 on clearance! this is actually some good stuff. but you know,i believe superfoods can have their place

in a healthy raw foods diet, but what i wantto do before i get into anything else about these amazing superfoods that a lot of supersellers try to sell you on, even nowadays, some raw foodists don’t even eat fruitsand vegetables anymore, they just eat superfoods out of a package because some people believethey’re better. well you know, i just want to cut through all the myths, cut throughall the bs, and give you guys the truth, and not just my truth, but a dozen of my friends’truths that i’ve known for many years about superfoods. so without further ado, let’sgo ahead and get into this episode where i hear from twelve of my friends about theiropinions on are superfoods necessary on a raw foods diet.so now we’re here with megan elizabeth,

you can learn more about her at meganelizabeth.com,or check her out on youtube at ezberaw, she’s been into raw foods now for the last six years,and the question for megan today is, do you need superfoods on a raw foods diet?superfoods, oh, there’s such a stigma with superfoods. i think that there’s some thatare good and some that are bad, like there’s a lot that are totally unnecessary that arejust a big waste of money, and i think that there’s a few that are really helpful, likelately everyone’s checking out the barley grass juice powder, and i’ve got to staylike i tried it and i really enjoy it. other than just taking it as a supplement, i thinkit’s really great to make sure that you’re getting some extra nutrition because a lotof people aren’t growing their own greens,

so i think it’s important to also just researchthem, look into it, who’s selling it, what are they all about and just do your researchbefore you get into any particular superfood. so now we’re with dr. rick dena, he’sbeen into raw foods for the last 27 years, you can learn more about him at rawfoodeducation.com.so the question i have today for rick is, do you need superfoods on a raw foods diet?alright superfoods, well first of all, what the heck is a “superfood”? you know oneof our students brought us a package of spinach a couple of years ago, and it says “spinachis a superfood.” i know from my wife that there is no legal definition of what a superfoodmeans, so in other words it’s a marketing term. anything can be a superfood if the personselling it decides it’s a superfood. now

typically though, superfoods are green powdersand things that are concentrated in nutrition, and some of those can be useful, but whenyou actually look at what nutrients people need, and then you look at what levels youget on a diet you get based on fresh fruits and vegetables, my wife just gave a presentationcalled “what’s in your salad?” and people were astounded about how much nutrition wasin a 500 calorie salad. people realize “oh my gosh, i might not need this supplementor this superfood or that other thing.” so it can be individual, overall, the healthierone eats, the less reliance they’re going to need on supplements and superfoods andother concentrated things, that’s for sure. now, what if you’re traveling and you don’thave time to eat big salads or you’re in

a situation where you’re not able to dothat? well some green powder mixed with a little bit of water, you can eat it like mudand it turns your teeth all green, that’s a great way to get some nutrition in, so thosetype of superfoods in those situations are extremely beneficial. but as i’m sure someof the other speakers said, my idea of superfoods are fresh fruits and vegetables eaten in largeenough quantities to constitute the majority of your calories, and if you’re doing that,you are so much more nutrient replete and healthier than someone who eats more of aprocessed junk food raw food diet, but takes all the best superfoods. so fresh fruits andvegetables are your best superfoods, especially the one that john tells you to grow in thebackyard, like when we go get our tree collards

in the back and our heirloom tomatoes andour zucchini with rock dust and compost and all that stuff, those are really the ultimatesuperfoods. alright so we’re here with dan mcdonald,the life regenerator, you want to check him out for sure on youtube at life regenerator,and he’s been into raw foods now for the last 14 years, and we’re just going to simplyask dan some questions today. so do you need superfoods on a raw food diet?well all raw foods are superfoods [inaudible] locally grown in good soil. but superfoods,i mean are we talking goji berries? because yeah there’s some nice goji berry tea withginger and lemon, i mean i don’t know what i would do with that when i feel like it youknow? i like some green powders as well just

for fun, what else is constitute as a superfood?it’s not necessary, i mean obviously the fruits and the vegetables are the basis, butin order to keep yourself well-rounded, sane, maybe social, traveling, it’s nice to havethe green powders when you’re traveling, so i would say it’s not absolutely necessarybut sometimes convenient and fun you know? keep things interesting?alright so now we’re with fully raw christina. hey you guys it’s christina.and she’s been into raw foods now for the last eight and a half years, and you can checkher out at fullyraw.com. and the question i have for christina today is do you needsuperfoods on a raw foods diet? do i need superfoods on a raw food diet? welli think that my idea of a superfood is like

kale, is like green juice, is like fruit,for me that’s superfood. do i consume things like powders and macafoods and all these super-chocolate,supercalifrajelisticexpiala raw food crack cocaine? no i don’t consume many of thosethings. i value them, i think they all have their purpose, but my idea of a superfoodis fruit, green, coming from the earth, high mineral, nutrient-dense food coming from reallyrich soil. so now we’re with don bennett das, he’sbeen into a raw foods fruit-based diet for over 20 years now, he’s definitely a wealthof knowledge, if you want to tap some of that knowledge, you’re going to want to checkhim out at his website, health101.org. so we’ve got a few questions for don today.do you need superfoods on a raw foods diet?

well, that depends on a couple of things.if you’re growing all your own fruits and vegetables in soil that you know is healthy,then why should you? there’s no reason to. if you’re getting everything [inaudible]in the foods that you’re eating if you know you are, no then of course you don’t, along, long time ago we didn’t, if we did we wouldn’t be here today because we couldn’thave had those superfoods back then. but some people eating foods that you’re buying atthe local stores, i have found that they’re just not cutting it with chromium or zincor iodine or something, so in that case yeah, a worthwhile superfood is good. unfortunately,95% of the superfoods aren’t worthy. they’re worthless basically. but there are some worthwhileones, there’s one that i center on and the

one that i recommend and one that has helpedall my clients and it’s helped me, and it’s nothing, it’s just one thing, it’s not20 different items in there, and it’s been super-charged by plugging it into the powerutility for a week, and people chanting over it with digeridoos or anything like that,it’s just one very simple thing, and it does make, if you put it in a smoothie withbanana, it makes for a more nutritious banana, that’s all it’s doing. so yes, some peopledo need it, i need it, i use it. so now we’re with karen ramsey, she’sbeen into raw foods for nearly 20 years now, you can learn more about her at superhealthychildren.com.the question i have for karen today is do you need superfoods on a raw foods diet?i believe that that really depends on your

situation, especially where you live, andi’ll give you an example, my daughter went to india on an exchange program, and the areawhere she was living, she got plentiful amounts of wonderful delicious fresh fruit, but shecould not get enough green leafy vegetables, and so i really did not want her to get amineral deficiency, she was there for quite a while, close to a year, and i sent her ajar of a popular green powder that i felt was a really good quality, and she did reallywell out of the 18 students who went on the trip, she was the only student who didn’tget sick, and i think she needed the fruit and the greens. so i was glad to keep sendingher the jars of green powder. so i think there are situations where we do need these superfoods,and sometimes in the winter, if i go to the

market and i don’t get good vegetables,i will take some green powder. i think a green powder like vitamineral green is very goodquality. so now we’re with tim van orton, he’sbeen into raw foods diet since 2004, so that’s like ten years at this point. i admire tim,i look up to him a lot. you can learn more about him and his work at runningraw.com,or his youtube channel running raw. so tim do you need superfoods on a raw foods diet?superfoods, yeah. what i realize is, it’s not the food that’s super it’s you that’ssuper, okay? you need a super [inaudible] to become a super dude, not a superfood.so now we’re here with chris kendall, he’s been raw for about a decade now, you can checkhim out at therawadvantage.com, and the question

for chris today is do you need superfoodson a raw foods diet? well you know i like to look at the definitionof superfoods you know, and to me a superfood is one that is a pure, natural state, youknow? the sun and the earth and the water, everything grew into being right? so wholefoods to me are superfoods, the kind of more commercial superfoods that are dry packagedand sold, i think they can be an okay addition to someone’s diet if they really enjoy them,if they feel good eating them being aware of how it feels when you do so, but to methe truest superfoods are just whole, fresh, ripe, raw organic plants you enjoy the most,you know they’re with the water content and the fiber all attached, they digest inthe proper rate.

so now we’re here with dr. sammy melkarski,he’s been into raw foods for the last 15 years, and you can learn more about dr. samat drsampt.com, and we’re going to ask him a simple question today. so do you need superfoodson a raw foods diet? well, i would say i think that fresh fruitsand vegetables and other plant-based foods are superfoods. things that are grown organicallyin nutrient-rich soil i think are superfoods, and that’s my definition of a superfood,so i would say yes, but if you’re looking at some food that’s been heavily marketedin a beautiful package from a foreign land, or some secret from an antiquity, i’m notso sure that that’s necessary, what you need to be is adequately nourished, and ihave a joke about this actually because i

believe somewhere over in tibet someone wasgoing “oh, american blueberry, very high antioxidant,” and they’re making a minton selling them over there just like we’ve imported foods from far over there that we’reeating and calling superfoods. the thing is you need to eat based on the region you livein, and so find the foods that are super in your area.so now we’re with nomi shannon, also known as the raw gourmet, she’s been doing rawfoods for the last 27 years, this lady is almost 71 now, she looks amazing. you canlearn more about her at rawgourmet.com. so the question for nomi is today, do you needsuperfoods on a raw foods diet? some people do, i never did superfoods, inever felt the need for it, but the last several

years as i’ve aged, for myself i found ineed more protein, even though i do lots of greens and green smoothies, i don’t eata lot of nuts, and that i’m doing better when i do superfoods, i’ve actually madesome of my own, i live out in the country as you know, and i just hack down about aquarter acre of stinging nettle and throw it in the dehydrator and dried it, and thenpicked all the leaves off it, threw it in the blender, and a couple of mason jars fullof that, but i also buy it. but, a lot of people feel they’re eating such healthy,pure diet that they don’t need it and they’re feeling great, so it’s a very, very subjectivething, and even the definition of superfoods is subjective.so now we’re with lou corona, he’s been

into raw and living foods now for the last41 years, definitely a long time. you can learn more about lou at loucorona.com, andthe question i have for lou today is do you need superfoods on a raw foods diet?again, i think that even like the first question you asked, if a person is born in this lifeoff rich soil, in other words, if they have no enzyme or mineral deficiencies at all,and if they’re living on a plant-based, raw living culture food lifestyle right fromthe get go, and the soil is rich, then a person can just go on with life and never [inaudible]taken any supplement at all. but what i find in most cases, that’s rare what i just saidright? but in most cases people are still living in the city, and they’re not eatingorganic enzyme-rich, mineral rich food, because

any of the health food stores that are beingsupplied by organic farmers as well as farmers’ markets, they’re running 25 percent plusin enzyme and mineral deficiencies. and so it’s not enough now to just live on organic,raw living foods from the health food stores and farmers markets. unless you have yourown land, you own soil, you’re building that soil and making it rich, because i’vealready spoken to many farmers all over the country, plus there’s a lot of [inaudible]found that our soil, organic soil, is running 25 to 75 percent plus enzyme and mineral deficiencies,and that’s why i don’t hesitate to take some enzymes when i consume food, and if you’relike the person who has a hard time breaking down fats into fatty acids, those people havewhat they call lipase enzyme deficiency, so

they need a little enzyme support in thatparticular enzyme to help them digest fats and fatty acids. that’s why i talk aboutpeople that have those challenges, to use the probiotics called life biotic to helpculturize and season us to release the fats into fatty acids so it can be more bioavailable,so it’s easier for the body to process it. so as far as the superfoods, there’s allkinds of different superfoods. you got your blue-green algae out there, you got spirulina,you got chlorella, you got wheatgrass juice concentrates, i mean you got people that putall of it together in one bottle, there’s a lot of different people doing any differentthings. personally, i did a 40 day water fast years ago, and i mean i’m 5’9” 160,i went down to 100 pounds when i did that,

and so to rebuild my body back up, i actuallywas doing a lot of studying on algaes. so i got the highest quality spirulina and iput it in the juice and mixed it up and i was going to drink it to help me rebuild mybody back up. and when i’m going to do that, i went to drink it like that and my arm wentlike that. and i tried to drink it again, my arm went like that. i tried to drink itone more time, tried to drink it my arm, it’s like my body wouldn’t even let me drinkit. i was like wondering “god, what’s going on here?” i’d read all these wonderfulthings about it you know? so i listened to my body, and i have to tell you that whenyou do a 40 day water fast, you become more sensitive, more in tune, more connected, andso i became that in tune to that point and

so i listened, so i didn’t do the algae.so next time i made some juice i went ahead and tried some wheatgrass juice concentrate,it’s a [inaudible] wheatgrass juice concentrate, i put some in the juice, mixed it up, i drankit, my body sucked it right up like no problem. i did the same thing with organic alfalfajuice concentrate, and i also did it with organic [inaudible] juice concentrate. mybody just sucked it right up. so then i put all three of them together with some mint,and i mixed it all together with my juice and drank it, my body just sucked it rightup, i rebuilt, regenerated and i’ve been doing that since.oh wow. so i don’t do algaes, [inaudible ] a friendof mine had a scientific report from nasa,

where they studied every algae in the world,farm-grown, freshwater grown, marine grown algaes. they tested all of them, and theyall had a form of contamination in the algaes, and what they discovered also that this particularcontamination that’s in the algaes, it really can’t be stripped out of it or filteredout of the algae, it’s like in there. so they found that algae is kind of like programmedto clean the water, so as it, you might say develops its growth in the water. it doesn’tcome from the sea per se, you know that right? it’s a growth that takes place in the water,but it also attracts toxins to itself too. and so anyway, some of these toxins that arein there, even though there’s vitamins and minerals and chlorophyll in there, and aminoacids, but there’s also contamination in

the algae, and it accumulates in your liver.so i have people that i’ve known for many years that have been living a very healthylifestyle, but they’ve been taking algae over the years, and every time i check theirliver, it’s always weak, and they’re aging fast. so i’m looking at them going “thankyou for being able to listen and also get that scientific report” it kind of mademore sense for me. so i haven’t done algaes but i have been doing the super grasses allthese years, and the thing is is that our organic food again is also mineral deficient,so that’s why i do the super grasses, and that’s why i do sea vegetables. i do seavegetables like kelp and [inaudible] and all that, i don’t get it from the pacific sideof the ocean because of all the radiation

and stuff going on and all the contamination,but i’ve been getting them from over there by maine.so now we’re with ronnie, which is half of the ronnie and min team, you can learnmore about them at youberaw.com, he’s been into raw foods for the last 14 years. thequestion for ronnie today is, ronnie do you need superfoods on a raw foods diet?well to me, raw natural living foods are superfoods. i think an apple’s a superfood. i don’tknow how much more super any other food could be than an apple or a pear or an orange, andi personally don’t take any supplements, i haven’t taken any supplements on my welljourney, and i really can’t speak to it because i’m not a nutritionist, but i followmy instincts and so far i haven’t found

any need of any kind of supplementation, butwe do grow all our own food as you know john up in mesquite, and we try to eat as closeto nature as possible, i follow your principle, if i can’t grow it myself i try to finda farmer’s garden and so on down the line, but my personal experience, i avoid supplementsof any kind. congratulations you guys made it through thevideo, you got to hear from 12 of my friends on are superfoods necessary on a raw foodsdiet, and a lot of them had many good opinions and really good answers. some people had betteranswers than others and i wouldn’t necessarily agree with all the people in the video. soi guess i want to answer the question next, and i’m john kohler, i’ve been into rawfoods now for 20 years and the question for

me today is do you need superfoods on a rawfoods diet? alright so the operating word there is “necessary” and “superfood.”so superfoods as dr. rick dena pointed out is a marketing term, you know there’s nosuch thing as superfoods, basically marketers and people came up with the superfood nameto basically sell you stuff in a bottle, right? and thing, so we could call it a super cator mega cat or whatever, and is that a better cat you get that one instead of just a normalkitty from your animal shelter? of course not, please adopt at your animal shelter ifyou are looking for a pet, aside from that point, superfoods could just be any food thatcan be and have high nutrition. so normally they’re from a fruit or vegetable, or anut or seed or something like that, so in

general they do have more nutrition than processedfoods, than junk foods than animal products and dairy and eggs and all this kind of crap,and so part of my teaching is i always want to encourage you guys to eat better and dobetter, good, better, best is what i like to say right? fruits and vegetables, yes,they’re great you should eat as many as you possibly can. if you’re not eating fruitsand vegetables, then you can eat some superfoods, if you can’t eat fruits and vegetables,well that’s probably better than not eating anything because in most cases, many fruitsand vegetables are in fact superfoods, but the best superfoods in the world are fruitsand vegetables, and more specifically ones you can grow yourself you know? in my bedhere we’ve got things like the dinosaur

kale, and kale is a superfood, this is a muchbetter superfood than the one inside in the package. i also have something called ashitaba,so i only learned about the ashitaba actually at the natural products expo which is a tradeshow for the health food industry, and they’re selling ashitaba in the little bottle as asuperfood. and i said “well, john why would i want to buy this bottle for like 40 bucks,”because i learned about ashitaba and how it’s like more nutritious than even kale whichis really nutritious and has these things called chalcones, which most people are notgetting in their diet that are anti-cancer and anti all these other things. so insteadof buying this bottle to get the benefits you know i’m like “well what’s betterthan that?” well i could grow it myself,

because i want to let you guys know that freshfoods have more nutrients than a superfood that’s in a package, because it has thefull water content and has the full life force, especially stuff you grow in your garden,and none of this kale gets picked until the minute i’m going to eat it. i’ll pickit, bring it inside, juice it, blend it, or just eat it, and it has its full life force,prana, chi, bio photons, whatever you want to call it, and this is super-important, right?and not all superfoods in packages have this at all. so there’s definitely a case forsuperfoods, and are they necessary, getting back to the question. i mean if you just wantto live, you probably don’t need them, but if you want optimal health, i would say yes,they are necessary, and here’s why – the

nutrient you guys need the most is the nutrientyou’re not getting. and if you’re not eating goji berries or maci berries or whateverand there’s a nutrient in there you may need that may prevent cancer like in my ashitabaand some of these other things around my garden, you know, and you get cancer “oh the rawfoods diet doesn’t work, i ate fruits and vegetables and it didn’t work.” well maybethat’s because you didn’t eat some superfoods occasionally or once in a while. now don’tget me wrong, i don’t make my life out of superfoods, my life is full of my garden aroundme with its wall of cucumbers, fresh tomatoes and all kinds of copious amounts of greens,and i eat the majority of my diet, 98 percent, 90 percent fruits and vegetables fresh. ieat a small percent of the superfoods that

come in packages to allow me to get more nutrientsin my diet that i wouldn’t normally get. yes, i grow my own goji berries [inaudible]side of the garden there, and i eat those fresh and i’d rather eat them fresh thanin a package, right? and that’s the other thing that’s really important to me is youguys increase the diversity of foods in your diet, and if superfoods allows you to do that,i’m all for it. in addition not all superfoods are created equal, there are some companiesthat really make sure their superfoods are not contaminated with diesel fuel particulateand grown in nutrient-dense soil, and there’s some companies that are not. so in some casesa nutrient-dense food in a package may have more of certain nutrients than the fresh foodgrown in unideal situations. not that i’m

going to recommend eating stuff in packages,but i want you guys to be aware of this you know, like one of the companies i like a lotis health force nutritionals, they kind of go the extra mile, the owner, dr. jamie sheridanis a fellow vegan and eats a lot of raw foods in his diet, and he goes the extra mile toensure his superfoods are actually quite good for you. and i think just giving yourselfthe extra boost of the vitamineral green for example that was mentioned earlier in thisvideo that i had on the table, i think is only a good thing to do you know, a littletablespoon in your green juice, your green smoothie, is only going to add and help youbecome healthier because it has so many ingredients in there that you would not be normally eatingthat will allow you to increase your diversity

of foods, and get some nutrients frankly thatyou might not be getting. so in the end i want to say superfoods, they have their place,i like to include them sometimes in small amounts, the majority of what i eat is fruitsand vegetables as much as i can out of my luscious garden. i also like to enjoy thesuperfoods when i travel and when i’m not able to get fresh fruits and vegetables soi have a dedicated pocket in my backpack for superfoods. so when i’m traveling on a plane,i always have superfoods available if i want something to eat, if i want some extra pick-me-upnutrients. my goal for you guys is to always eat more fruits and vegetables, and yes fruitsand vegetables in a package labeled superfoods are also fruits and vegetables, and if thatgets you away from eating animal products,

meat products, dairy, cheese, eggs, processedfoods, junk foods, candy bars, cookies, all the crap that americans eat, i think i’mall for it, but the easiest obviously is fruits and vegetables. so i would encourage everybodyout there to do what you think is right, and life is not about right and wrong “superfoodsare good, no they’re bad.” you know it’s somewhere in the middle and let’s just kindof be realistic about this thinking of right and wrong, good and bad, we need to kind ofget away from that and why don’t we think “good, better, best,” right? if you wantto be best maybe have some superfoods once in a while, and have different kinds and rotatethem and don’t always just get the goji berries because they’re supposed to be thebest or whatever, and there are some challenges

with superfoods out there, and i do not recommendyou guys live on a superfood based diet as some raw food gurus are doing these days.any case, if you enjoyed this episode please give me a thumbs up, let me know, i have someother videos where i interview my friends for their opinions on a variety of topics,including probiotics and enzymes and all these other things. also be sure to subscribe ifyou’re not already, i have new videos coming out all the time that you will always learnsomething from, and be sure to check out my past episodes, i have over 400 episodes nowon all aspects of living a healthy plant-based raw foods diet. once again my name is johnkohler with okraw.com, we’ll see you next time, until then, keep eating your home-grownfruits and vegetables, they are the best.