BLENDED SALADS

“In your last newsletter issue, you say that blended salads are not for raw food beginners. Why not? I don't see the point of blending salads - humans need to use their teeth!”

ANSWER: I said that blended salads are not for “beginners” simply because they won't appeal to most people who are just getting started!

You are perfectly right. Humans need to use their teeth. However, let me point out several challenges here:

1- We have poor dental health. Name a person you know who never had a cavity in their life? With all their wisdom teeth? With a perfect jaw structure from birth? I've rarely met such people.

The reality is that we often have compromised teeth. Remember that when you get dental work done, your teeth are never quite the same after. If you had your wisdom teeth pulled out, you are missing a major chewing area.

If your teeth are not completely in alignment (like in most people), you are never going to be able to chew completely well, like you would if your teeth and dental health had been perfect.

Remember, raw vegetables have to be completely chewed and turned into a liquid in order to be digested.

2- Monkeys spend 6 hours a day chewing. If you were to sit down and eat a salad big enough to really feed you, and then try to chew it very, very well, you'd spend a long time chewing! Most people are not ready to do that, and when they are, they might have dental issues as well.

So my point is not that we should stop chewing, but to understand that we're in a compromised situation here, and if we want to get optimal nutrition from raw foods, we need to included these blended foods in our diet such as green smoothies or blended salads.

That doesn't mean you can't have a nice salad too, or eat fruit.

All the things I talked about - green smoothies, blended salads - are not meant to “replace” chewing, but simply be something you might consider adding to your diet.