Hi,

I am somewhat new to raw food. I've heard that it is ok to low heat some raw food seeing as only beyond 105 or something like that kills enzymes. The reason I care is because I don't like cold soup or totally raw sprouts.

Does anyone have any comment on this?

Is time a factor (ie will leaving the food in at 105 for too long actually kill enzymes)?

Does the temperature actually have to be over 105 because the food will usually be a lower temp as the oven or whatever?

Also is there a way to cook rice and other sprouts in the oven at low heat over a long time specifically to soften them up(how about a change in water ratios?)?

I'm getting a little frustrated with this because my old oven only tracks times above 200 so I guess I have to do some temp taking etc. I just made some soup and after stirring the temp was 101 something and it tasted fine.

Thanks!

If you heat some food to 105 it ought to be fine. However, the less heat you apply, and the shorter the duration, the better.

The hotter the temperature in the oven, the quicker the food's temperature will rise. If the minimum temperature in your oven is 200, perhaps leave the door cracked a little, and just keep the food in the over long enough so you can still handle the food with your bare hands without any discomfort. If the food burns your hands, odds are you've cooked the food too much,

Rice is one of those things that raw foodists don't eat unless they cooked it. I've not heard of ways to eat rice without cooking, though there may be some techniques for cooking at relatively low temperatures (say 160-180F), but the rice will not exactly be raw, but still probably better than boiling the rice. I don't eat rice as a raw foodist, so I don't have any experience with preparing rice that isn't boiled.

Welcome to the forum.

Some people are 100 percent raw so for them it may be an issue. Normally enzymes do not die at 105, it does not matter how long you keep them at that temperature. Food stay in dehydrators for 24 hours or more at that temperature without killing enzymes.
As far as cooking rice is concerned there a new variety of rice that require no cooking will be on the market soon. [www.youtube.com]

A little trick I use when making raw soups is to heat my bowl up with boiling hot water. Then use the hot bowl with my soup. The radiating heat from the bowl makes me feel like I'm having a nice hot bowl of soup even though its only warm to the tongue it's hot on the outside to my hands

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/26/2012 04:51AM by Jgunn.

I warm up raw food all the time :-). Usually it's just warming the water for smoothies or chia seeds but you can also put zucchinni pasta in a pan and warm it up. Lot's of people would put things like that in a dehydrator to warm them up but I don't have the boxy kind of dehydrator, mine has stackable trays so I can't put bowls in it to warm things up.

Hello, Johlysid, and welcome!

Agree with everyone else about the warming of foods gently.

Please keep in mind that not all things are meant to be eaten raw, like grains. Sprout them if you wish, but don't just soak rice or wheatberries and assume your body will digest them--you are not a bird!

Good luck with your explorations

Relevant: [www.rawfoodsupport.com]