B17

Vitamin B-17 or nitriloside is a name used to describe a large group of water-soluble, non-toxic, sugary, compounds found in over 800 plants, many of which are edible.  It is said by many to be a preventative for cancer or even it is said by many that cancer is a vitamin B17 deficiency metabolic disease.

Nitrilosides comprise molecules made of natural sugar, hydrogen cyanide, and a benzene ring or an acetone. Though the intact molecule is, for all practical purposes, completely non-toxic,  in metabolism, nitriloside is hydrolyzed to free hydrogen cyanide, benzaldehyde or acetone and sugar.

This is how the theory goes: When part of the body is damaged in some way stem cells rebuild the damaged area.  It is thought that nitrilosides, through their cyanide and benzene breakdown products, prevent the rebuilding process getting out of hand.  In the past, human diets were rich in nitrilosides, but the modern processed diet can easily be almost completely lacking in them. For example, the nitriloside rich cereal millet was once more widely used in human nutrition than wheat and the now ubiquitous wheat seed contains little or no nitriloside.  Vitamin B17 appears in abundance in untamed nature.  B17 is bitter to the taste and humans taste buds have changed  over time due to a deviation away from a natural diet.  In an attempt to improve tastes and flavours, we humans have eliminated bitter substances like B17 by selection and cross-breeding.  However many of the foods that have been domesticated still contain the vitamin B17 in that part not eaten by modern humans, such as the seeds in apricots. If B17 is lacking in the diet, the rebuilding process can get out of hand and tumours can develop. Vitamin B17 is toxic to problematic overgrowing cells, but non-toxic and in fact nourishes ordinary cells.  In other words, it is said that cancer is a chronic metabolic disease that arising from a specific vitamin deficiency--a deficiency specifically in vitamin B-17 (nitriloside).

One of the most common nitrilosides is amygdalin. This nitriloside occurs in the kernels of seeds of practically all fruits. The seeds of apples, apricots, cherries, peaches, plums, nectarines, and the like carry this factor; often in the extraordinary concentration of 2 to 3 per cent.

There is plenty of precadent for believing that a once fatal disease could turn out simply to be a metabolic disorder.  At one time the metabolic disease scurvy killed hundreds of thousands of people, sometimes entire populations. It found total prevention and cure in the ascorbic acid or vitamin C component of fruits and vegetables. Similarly, the once fatal diseases pernicious anemia, pellagra, beri beri, countless neuropathies, and the like, found complete cure and prevention in specific dietary factors, that is, essential nutrients in an adequate diet. Before these diseases were understood, before the means of total prevention and cure were discovered, it was widely believed that these dietary deficiency diseases were due to viruses, bacteria, bad air, "infection," or some such cause.

Much of this material is taken from a paper by Ernst Theodor Krebs, Jr. presented in German before a congress of the International Medical Society for Blood and Tumor Disease,

Nov. 7, 1970, in Baden-Baden, West Germany. On this occasion, the author received an award honoring his discovery and research on vitamin B-15 (pangamic acid) and vitamin B-17 (nitriloside).

for  more information visit:
http://credence.org/B17manual/

Foods Containing B17 (Nitrilosides)

Listed below is an evaluation of some of the more common foods.  Keep in mind that these are averages only and that specimens vary widely depending on variety, locale, soil, and climate.

Fruits Range*
blackberry, domestic     low
blackberry, wild     high
boysenberry     med.
choke cherry     high
wild crabapple     high
market cranberry     low
Swedish (lignon) cranberry     high
currant     med.
elderberry     med. to high
gooseberry     med.
huckleberry     med.
loganberry     med.
mulberry     med.
quince     med.
raspberry     med.


Seeds Range*
apple seeds     high
apricot seed     high
buckwheat     med.
cherry seed     high
flax     med.
millet     med.
nectarine seed     high
peach seed     high
pear seeds     high
plum seed     high
prune seed     high
squash seeds     med.


Beans Range*
black     low
black-eyed peas     low
fava     high
garbanzo     low to med.
green pea     low
kidney     low to med.
lentils     med.
lima, U.S.     low
lima, Burma     med.
mung     med. to high
shell     low
Nuts (all raw) Range*
bitter almond     high
cashew     low
macadamia     med. to high


Sprouts Range*
alfalfa     med.
bamboo     high
fava     med.
garbanzo     med.
mung     med.
Leaves Range*
alfalfa     high
beet tops     low
eucalyptus     high
spinach     low
water cress     low


Tubers Range*
cassava     high
sweetpotato     low
yams     low

Range*       1000 mg ( milligrams ) = 1 gram

High — above 500 mg nitriloside per 100 grams of food.

Medium — above 100 mg nitriloside per 100 grams of food.

Low — below 100 mg nitriloside per 100 grams of food.

kefir the magic elixir

Kefir is an incredible magic food which comes into being through the symbiotic activities of three living groups: humans, grazing animals and beneficial micro-organisms. The name 'kefir' itself means 'good feeling', an apt name as it contains a lot of tryptophan from which serotonin, the well-being biochemical, is made.

Kefir can be thought of as a kind of powerful yoghurt but with some significant advantages. It is the most powerfully probiotic food or supplement that we know of. It actively repopulates the gut, laying down a healthy mucus layer that micro-flora can flourish in, supporting the digestive and immune system.

The culture is so powerful that, unlike yoghurt, it can successfully compete with all the micro-organisms that naturally exist in milk and also it will work at room temperature. This means that, unlike with yoghurt, the milk does not have to be heated to make it and so the nutritional components in the milk remain undamaged. This is great because it allows us to take full advantage of the nutrition in dairy milk, for example the fat soluble vitamins A (retinol), D3 and K2. Also it avoids the changes to the proteins and sugars in milk which can cause problems.

The kefir culture, which transforms animal milks into a supremely nourishing drink, is actually a mixture of numerous kinds of friendly bacteria and yeasts. Our bodies are really whole ecosystems and ideally our digestive tracts contain ten times more friendly micro-organisms than we have cells in our bodies; these support a healthy immune system and brain function. The kefir culture itself is potentially immortal – if properly looked after and fed with milk, it can live indefinitely. The liquid kefir that it makes is a preserved living food and can keep for months. We prefer to store it in a cool place but this is not necessary. If it is stored in a warm place secondary fermentation in the bottle will take place so you may want to check that too much pressure is not building up over time.

The particular nutritive properties of kefir are numerous. The culture rebalances the amino acids in animal milk making them more suitable for humans. In particular, as already mentioned, it increases the amount of tryptophan which is the raw material from which serotonin, the well-being biochemical, is made. Tryptophan tends to be lacking in modern diets as it is easily damaged by cooking. Kefir contains ample amounts of B vitamins including B12. Acetylcholine in it improves sleep and is good for memory, intelligence, learning, enthusiasm and general mood. Kefir also contains lecithin which helps in the assimilation of fats. It contains 'right-rotating' lactic acid (as opposed to 'left-rotating' lactic acid found in other yoghurts) which revives cells.

One of the great aspects of kefir is that it allows us to take advantage of the nutrition in raw milk whilst avoiding some of the potential allergenic problems of dairy products. The culture breaks down the lactose into lactic acid and the casein into beneficial peptides. If kefir is made with Jersey milk (which ours is) then the additional allergenic problems of modern milk are further avoided.  Jersey cows along with Guernsey, Asian and African cows are a traditional breed which produce predominantly A2 milk which is  much more suitable for human consumption than the allergenic A1 type milk  produced by modern breeds of cows. In A1 milk the amino acid proline is replaced by histadine which breaks off and creates a rogue form of casomorphine. The cows that produce the organic milk that we use are grass fed for most of the year and when possible in winter. It is also interesting to note that kefir can break down pesticides.

Added to all this, kefir has an unusual, delicious and acquired taste. When bottled,  it undergoes a secondary fermentation and becomes slightly fizzy - the 'champagne of raw dairy'. You need to open it carefully – occasionally it can bubble over the top of the bottle.

Using kefir

Kefir can be made into a mild soft cheese. Simply pour into a muslin bag (for example the type used for making seed and nut milks) and hang over a container to catch the whey. Leave for 24 hours and you have kefir cheese in the bag. You can use this to make raw cheesecakes.

To make kefir cream simply leave the kefir in a jar and let it separate out and scoop the cream off the top. You can use the whey that is left behind too to inoculate vegetable ferments. Sometimes the kefir is already separated out in the bottle this way. If you want to mix it up you can just shake the bottle. Be careful when you open it after doing this as it will make it more fizzy!

Kefir is delicious drunk by itself but you can also mix in superfood powders and fruit etc according to taste. One of our favourite foods to add is yacon, either as the yacon root powder or yacon syrup; they contain prebiotics, indigestible sugars and fibres which act as food for beneficial micro-organisms in the gut. Dried noni is also a great addition as it facilitates the absorption of tryptophan.

Making kefir

Kefir can be made from almost any kind of milk – cows’, goat’s, sheep’s, soy, coconut, nut milks and seed milks – but not rice or oat milk as they are quite different. It is much easier to make kefir with animal milks and this is what the culture really needs to feed on.  If you make it with nut or seed milks then you need to sweeten the milk for example with blended in soaked dried fruit and you may have to feed the culture itself with animal milk from time to time.  Also the culture thrives best on raw milk, you can make kefir with pasteurised milk and this will help add life-force to your milk but it is tastier and more nutritious with raw milk and the culture does better.

So...you just put the culture (it looks a bit like cottage cheese and is different to the drink which is made with it) into the raw milk in an airtight glass jar (a kilner type jar is ideal). The process is anaerobic (happens better without oxygen). Metal can damage kefir if it touches it. Plastic is no good for any period of time as the kefir, being acidic will slightly corrode the plastic into the kefir. Just leave at room temperature for about 24 hours, strain with a plastic sieve and use the liquid that drains out for eating, drinking or recipes. Store the liquid in the fridge until you use it. Clean the jar with hot water and put the lumpy bits (culture) back into the jar. You can rinse the lumpy bits with lukewarm water before you return them to the jar but traditionally they were not washed and this may be better for them.

If not making kefir for a while store the culture in a mixture of water and milk in the fridge. Kefir culture multiplies very quickly - store spare culture in this way until you find someone else who wants it.

You can obtain cultures and kefir by the bottle at here at food for consciousness shop

Holly Paige

recommended raw food groups

This list has been written and revised over years, informed by our own and others' experience.  It is designed to cover all nutritional needs for most people but you don't have to be going 100% raw to include these vital foods in your diet.  We recommend including the following food groups for optimal brain nutrition:

Fruit – including tropical fruit such as mangoes, figs, papayas and bananas; berries and other fruit. We enjoy melons, apricots, apples and pears, cherries, kakis, grapes, currants, oranges, lemons, grapefruit, avocados, tomatoes, cucumber etc.

Nuts and Seeds – fruit is not dense enough to supply all our nutritional needs in our current state. And, in our natural state, would we would be eating and digesting the seeds within fruit. Nuts and seeds give us dense nutrition. They should generally be soaked in water for a few hours before use to break down their growth inhibitors which interfere in digestion and assimilation of nutrients. Seeds are much more digestible than nuts which are best consumed in moderation. Hemp is a good staple; also sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, hazels (filberts), walnuts, almonds, coconut, Siberian cedar nuts, macadamias, brazils and pecans contain beneficial nutrition.  Chia seeds are a great source of omega 3′s and fibre.

Greens and vegetables – needed for minerals, chlorophyll and protein and various co-factors, they also alkalise the body in a way that is essential to counteract the acid-forming properties of most nuts and seeds and some other foods. Dark greens provide the most intense nutrition. In late winter and spring we wild green juice and wild greens with salad can be extremely revitalsing.  Grasses can be juiced too. Home grown salad greens are the freshest. Sprouts such as alfalfa, radish, quinoa can provide fresh living greens, especially if you grow them yourself which is very quick and easy when you get the hang of it. Home grown sprouts are a very economic way of getting high quality nutrition and life-force. Dried green superfoods such as barley grass and hemp leaf are also helpful.  Root vegetables such as carrots and sweet potatoes are very nourishing

Sea vegetables – provide iodine and trace minerals which are more abundant in the oceans than the land. Kelp is the richest in iodine.  Sea spaghetti is a tasty ingredient for making appetising and interesting dishes.

Oils – we get fatty acids from nuts and seeds but to keep the correct balance between omega 3 and omega 6 essential fatty acids flaxseed (linseed) oil is helpful. This oil is very unstable and needs to be kept sealed and cool. A flax oil that has not gone rancid is surprisingly pleasant to the taste. The omega 3 essential fatty acids from plant sources such as flax have to be converted inside us to provide EPA and DHA which the brain needs. Coconut oil helps this process but actually most people need to ingest EPA and DHA directly. We recommend purified fish oil or marine phytoplankton or other supplement for those who do not want to eat fish products. Click here to read more.

Raw dairy – we have found these foods, in moderate quantities very helpful in enabling us to eat entirely raw foods and maintain excellent health. The main point is the need for most people for nutritional components found in raw animal-sourced fats so if you don’t eat raw dairy it is wise to think where you obtain these nutrients. You can choose from raw goats and cows milk, goats’ and cows’ butter, sheep or goats’ yoghurt, kefir, unpasteurised, cheese and sometimes raw (carefully selected organic, free-range) egg yolks. They could be seen as a substitute for the large amount of insect matter we would consume if we gathered our food in the wild. They are a vital source of vitamins D and retinol (vitamin A), fat soluble vitamins which are difficult to obtain in sufficient quantities and in an assimilable form from elsewhere. In temperate latitudes for much of the year, the sun does not rise high enough to give us the UVB light our skin needs to make sufficient vitamin D. B12 needs also to come from animal sources – plant sourced B12 is not the form humans need and can even get in the way of proper B12 absorption. We suspect there are also subtle factors in animal products that we do not fully understand yet. We have found ethical sources of these products. Click here for Raw Dairy Suppliers.

Fermented foods – provide probiotics and B vitamins and can be revolutionary in our health.  They include coconut and milk kefirs, kombucha, cultured vegetables such as sauerkraut and kimchee, miso and seed cheeses.  Kefir is probably the most powerful probiotic known.  For more information about kefir click here.
Medicinal mushrooms – reishi and shitake have become well known. Also chaga, lion’s mane, shitake, tremella etc all boost the immune system and have many other health enhancing qualities.

Flowers – the precursors to fruit are delicious embellishment to our diets.  Edible flowers include borage, nasturtiums, honeysuckle, rose petals, evening primrose and many more – many flowers are edible especially if the fruits are.

Superfoods and Supplements- due to poor quality of soil (including organic because of long term soil erosion), fruit being picked unripe, storage and the fact that the human gut is not working at its best, we need all the help we can get. This is the case whether eating cooked or raw food. We obtain extra minerals, vitamins and healthy mood enhancing compounds from superfoods and supplements and also take MSM, viatmin D3 and iodine. Aloe vera contains some invaluable elements; the fresh gel is ideal and the plants are easy to grow on a window sill. It can be applied to the skin.  Superfoods take nutrition to another level of evolution. Goji berries, raw cacao, maca, bee pollen, algae and barleygrass, purple corn, algaroba, rosehip, vanilla, noni, suma, shilajit and royal jelly are some favourites.  In terms of supplements, the list goes on but these ones feel important to mention: uibiquinol is highly recommended for those over 40, progesterone cream for women and melatonin is beneficial for many people.

Tonic Herbs – well worth looking into, some of our favourites are he shou wu and rhodiola.

Water – of course- our main constituent – it is well known now that we should drink plenty of good water – clean fresh spring water is the ideal.  It does not need to be drunk alone – it is an excellent carrier for other supernutrition in the form of teas, elixirs, juices, smoothies etc.

Earthing - last in this list but not least, in order to function sanely and healthily as human animals we need a connection to the source of our physical life, the Earth itself.  It is important to spend time in nature and go barefoot, but when this is not possible we can maintain an electrical connection with the Earth through the use of 'grounding' devices such as earthing sheets and mats.

raw dairy, health and ethics

Here's an audio piece I did talking about the role of dairy products in a raw food lifestyle for health and also putting the ethics into perspective hopefully!  Underneath is the basic flow of my thoughts on this subject:

1.  It seems that most people need to consume some animal material for fat soluble vitamins or bring in some processed fortified foods.

I am not talking about the exceptions that prove the rule here but am concerned with the majority.  It seems that in the long term most people need to consume animal fats in order to obtain the fat soluble vitamins A,D nad K in the form that the body can use; in the case of vitamin A this is retinol and in the case of vitamin D, D3.  All traditional cultures that we know of and as studied by Weston Price consumed at least some animal products, in general the further they were from the equator, the higher the ratio of animal to plant foods.

If at some point we lived a frugivorous diet in the forest, this would have included all kinds of insect material.

Grazing animals such as cows, goats and sheep not only consume insects along with a great variety of grasses and herbs, they are also out naked absorbing sunlight while we are indoors.  These animals can absorb the nutrients they need from the vegetation insects and sunlight in latitudes where humans need to clothe themselves, house themselves and cannot absorb the vitamin D they need from the sun.  We have traditionally piggybacked in this way off animals indigenous to these climates, whether we have used their milk or eaten their flesh.

2. So, given our current circumstances what are the healthiest, most efficient and ethical ways of taking in the fats we need?

Looking at flesh foods, apart from even the various ethical questions around the meat and fishing industries, meat and fish are actually quite difficult foods for us to digest.  Most of us would not be willing to spend our days foraging for insect filled fruit and it could even be that our digestive systems could no longer extract what we need from such a  diet.  It could  be argued that we are not designed to drink the milk of another animal or drink milk after childhood but at least we do have a an inherent capacity to digest mammal milk in our design because we are designed to drink our mother's milk as children.   We then can apply techniques of fermentation to make these milks even more digestible for us. For example the kefir culture breaks down casein, and lactose and changes the ratios of the amino acids in the milk to be more suitable for humans.

3. What are the broader ethical issues?

As a  species we have kept domesticated animals for a long time and have developed an interdependent relationship with them.  We have also developed a three way interdependence, a symbiotic relationship between ourselves, the animals, and the organisms in the cultures such as kefir used to ferment the milk. This is an ecosystem in itself. worthy of sustaining.  The cultures and animals that have been domesticated for so many years would not fare well if we abandoned them.  The damage to the planetary ecosystem and thus indirect harm to animals may actually be greater by the manufacturing or importing of other foods that we might use to replace dairy products.

We cannot separate out plant and animal life.  Even plants are feeding off soil which includes broken down animal waste.  The compassionate way is not to try to remove animal input but to avoid animal cruelty and connect to the animals.  A lot of this is about economics. Now, economic demand is leading  some farms to treat milking animals in much more caring ways such as letting calves stay with their mothers and keeping on  cows who have stopped milking to retire gracefully in the fields.  An example of such a dairy is the Calf at Foot Dairy. http://www.the-calf-at-foot-dairy.co.uk/  The milk from such dairies is noticeably more delicious.

4.  Why is this such a significant issue?

The question of whether it is acceptable to eat animal products seems to be a perennial one in the raw food scene and people get very heated about it, to an extraordinary degree.  I feel passionately about it for several reasons - health, freedom and reaching our full potential. Firstly I want people to be healthy, secondly because I want people to be free of imposed anti-human beliefs and thirdly I passionately believe that eating natural raw foods that fit our biology as a species is an integral part of us reaching our full potential and I don't like seeing this being undermined.

I have covered the issue of health above in connection with fat soluble vitamins, we also need to think about where we get omega 3 fatty acids DHA and EPA, there are other factors in animal foods too.

Then we come to the imposed beliefs.  Animal and plant life, not to mention human life is intertwined on this planet, that's just the way it works.  The idea of not in any way consuming anything that has at some point come from an animal is just a concept with no genuine reality.  It is something very different to the genuine connection and compassion that humans naturally feel towards other mammals.  A disconnected belief that makes it difficult for humans and especially the young to get the nutrition that they need really is anti-human.

And thirdly about human potential, getting undamaged (i.e. not heated above biological temperature) nutritional components can rebuild our neurological system to another level.  Essentially this means a nutrient dense predominantly raw and predominantly but not exclusively plant based diet.  To sabotage this with another contradictory thought stream which suggests it is wrong to do what we need to do to get vital nutrients seems to me unwise to say the least and thoroughly confusing and unproductive for someone who is improving their diet with a view to fulfilling their potential.  As so much on this planet hangs on humans coming out of their stupor and reaching towards their divine endowment, it seems ethical in the deepest sense to obtain whatever nutrition we need to take from other animals in the most respectful way possible.

greening the desert

"All the problems of the world can be solved in a garden"

 

cults

The four factors that Deikman cites, in this link, as characteristic of cult phenomena are
• compliance with the group
• dependence on a leader
• avoidance of dissent
• devaluation of outsiders.
http://www.hgi.org.uk/archive/cults.htm#.UsHYS_RdVnY

Cultism is really an extreme form of culture,  we just need to be moving in slightly the opposite direction...cultural deprogramming.

what is evil?

"evil is whatever goes against the life force, the divinely endowed potential of the anthropos (human species), the beauty of nature, the innate desire of all things to thrive" John Lamb Lash