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Rick Burnett: On page 97 of the book Possibility Living, you write "prepare food in a healthy way."  What are the healthy and unhealthy ways to prepare food?  Let's start by talking about raw foods.

Dr. Robert A. Schuller: Raw foods - I believe that is the healthiest way to prepare most foods.  I actually had a gentleman I interviewed once who ate everything raw - including going into a restaurant and ordering a raw piece of chicken!  In my opinion, that is carrying it beyond reasonable.  I would not encourage people to eat raw chicken.  However, I would encourage people to eat most of their fruits and vegetables raw, or close to raw because then you preserve most of the enzymes.  That is one of the key factors in helping the body use food.  God created a living thing inside food called an enzyme.  It is the enzyme that is the main enemy of food distributors today.  The enzymes are what help the body break down the food - it also makes the food spoil, therefore it is the enemy of food distributors, because the food spoils.  So, they try to kill as many of those enzymes as they can.  Meanwhile, our bodies crave those enzymes.  Without them, our body does not know what to do with all this food.  You can actually take supplemental enzymes if you have difficulty finding enough raw food.  At the very least, I recommend to people to eat something raw with every meal.  So, for breakfast this morning I had oatmeal, with bee pollen on it.  I believe the bee pollen would be considered raw.  I also had some yogurt - so I had some live cultures from the yogurt.  In addition to that I had a half of grapefruit - so I had the enzymes from the grapefruit.  So, I had something raw this morning.  I encourage people to do this because without those enzymes our body does not know how to function.

Rick Burnett:   Does it matter which type of yogurt? 

Dr. Robert A. Schuller:   I use a totally plain, organic yogurt.  I do that because I don't want the added sugars. 

Dr. Douglas DiSiena:  And, it must have live cultures in it.  Many times you'll see yogurt and if it's not in the refrigerated section then the culture is probably dead

Rick Burnett:  Why are enzymes the enemy of food distributors?

Dr. Robert A. Schuller:  What happens is the enzymes are what break down the food.  The main job of the food distributors is to get the food into the hands of people while it looks "pretty."  People only want to buy "pretty" food.  Once the enzymes start to work on the food, it starts to deteriorate the food.  In all packaged food the enzymes have not only been killed, but they have been completely eradicated from the food source.  Then they put in all kinds of other preservatives so that it can sit on the shelf for months.  You can open it up months after it's been packaged and it will look, smell and taste like it did the day it was packaged.  That gives them an incredible longevity to sell that packaged product without having any wasted food.  On the other hand, go to a produce section and you'll always see a store worker taking produce out and throwing it away.  It's amazing how much fresh produce is thrown away.  The reason for that are the enzymes.  The produce you eat has seed in it and that seed is a living thing - that produce is a living thing.  When you eat it you are eating a life force designed to help you regenerate your life.

Rick Burnett:   Dr. DiSiena, how important is it to obtain organically grown food?

Dr. Doug DiSiena:   Always choose organic first.  I always recommend that people shop in the produce section.  That is the first place you should go to in the grocery store.  My father told me not too long ago, that when he was a kid, his family went to the local corner store and purchased fresh produce.  They didn't really have many pesticides in those days, so essentially it was organic produce.  They had fresh, raw food as their normal dietary plan.  It really is a recent phenomenon that we have all this pre-packaged food that stays on the shelves forever.

Rick Burnett:   When you go into the grocery store you'll find some produce that says "certified organic" - it seems as though there are different levels of organic foods - is that true?

Dr. Douglas DiSiena:   Yes, there are because organic is very loosely regulated now.  However, the idea is to choose organic.  It doesn't even really cost that much more to buy organic.  When you buy organic, you know you're not buying on those cumulative amounts of chemicals that is are on regular food.   The other thing I'd like to mention is, if you buy regular food, make sure you absolutely thoroughly wash your fruits and vegetables. 

Dr. Robert A. Schuller:   It's also important to wash the organic foods as well.  The organic foods will often have more bacteria because it doesn't have the preservatives.  The best way I've been told and what we do is use a capful of Clorox in the water.  That Clorox will kill the bacteria on the exterior of the food without damaging the food whatsoever.  Fill the sink with the water, and put a capful of Clorox in the water and then put your fruits and vegetables in and let them soak for a few minutes - drain them and rinse them well.  They will stay fresher much longer once you've gotten rid of the bacteria, because the bacteria can also breaks down the food.

Dr. Douglas DiSiena:   I tell people to wash all fruits and vegetables.  For example, most people don't think they have to wash bananas, because they peel a banana and eat what's inside.  However, they will wash their apples and then place those apples right beside the unwashed bananas. 

Rick Burnett:    Should you wash them before you store them, or put them in the refrigerator, or before you eat them?

Dr. Robert A. Schuller:  You don't want to put them in the refrigerator because the refrigeration process will soak out the vitamin content of a fruit or vegetable. 

Rick Burnett:   So the best thing is to purchase fruits and vegetables daily?

Dr. Robert A. Schuller:   The best thing, without question, is to go to an organic orchard and pick it off the tree!  The further away from that you get, the less beneficial it is.  That's not to say that you have to go to an organic orchard and pick it yourself - few people have that liberty - but the closer you can get to that the better it is.  Don't completely out of your way and think you have to go to the grocery store everyday and only buy enough for that day - it becomes a little overwhelming.  I don't think it's going to make that much difference.  You have to realize what that would cost you in other areas of your life.  Possibility Living is about looking at the whole concept of fulfilling the purpose God has for our life.  It's not simply trying to stretch one more day out of 100 years.  I would rather live to be 70 and have the best 70 years and live to be happy and healthy, rather than live to be 100 and not accomplish anything because I'm constantly taking care of my self.  So, we have to put everything in perspective.  So, if you can't get organic food, don't starve yourself, eat the foods that are at your disposal.  You just have to do the best you can.  That 's what this Possibility Living books is about, it helps us to learn to make right choices, given the choices we have.

Rick Burnett:  We're working our way down the list from the best way to prepare foods, to the worst way.  The next item on the list is stir-fried or wok style.

Dr. Robert A. Schuller:   I go to an organic farm that has a stir fry mix.  All I have to dump it in the pan and stir-fry it and it is absolutely delicious.  Sometimes we throw in some chicken and it's a complete meal ready to go!

Dr. Douglas DiSiena:    Stir-fry is good because you cook it very hot (temperature). 

Rick Burnett: Don't you use oil in stir-fry?

Dr. Douglas DiSiena:   Yes, but because you cook with such a high temperature, you can typically use very little oil. 

Rick Burnett:   What is good oil?

Dr. Robert A. Schuller:  I buy olive oil in a spray form.  I just coat the pan with the oil - it's very minimal.

Rick Burnett:   What about baked foods?

Dr. Robert A. Schuller:  I baked a great leg of lamb recently.  It was a good meal!

Rick Burnett:  Are meats the best thing to bake - or how about vegetables?

Dr. Robert A. Schuller: I bake sweet potatoes and yams.  There are some great recipes for squashes that you can bake.  You don't want to typically eat squashes raw.

Rick Burnett:    What about broiled foods?

Dr. Douglas DiSiena:  Fish broils well because you tend to use less oil with it when you broil it.  Especially, if you have a high oil fish like a salmon or tuna.   Actually my favorite way to eat tuna is raw.

Rick Burnett:   What about barbecue?

Dr. Douglas DiSiena:  The word barbecue actually means slow cooking.  However, we always equate barbecuing with grilling, which is actually a higher heat source.  Grilling is when you put in on the hot coals.  When you put it on a lower heat source, that is barbecue - that's when meats cook for a longer period of time on a lower heat source. 

Rick Burnett:   What about microwave foods?

Dr. Robert A. Schuller:    I'll tell you what microwaves are really good for - heating water!  I use it to make a cup of tea all the time.

Dr. Douglas DiSiena:    Microwave food is somewhat controversial.  It would not be my first choice for cooking; it would one of my lower choice. Also, food doesn't taste very well when it has been microwaved.  The other thing about microwaving is it rapidly vibrates the food molecules at extremely high rates.  There are some studies that show it breaks down the protein structure of the food.  One of the things we want to say is for women who want to heat milk for their child, or even warming breast milk, do not microwave it.  Put it in a pan of water like our parents used to do!

Rick Burnett:    What about smoked foods? 

Dr. Robert A. Schuller:   Well, it's not at the top of the list. 

Dr. Douglas DiSiena:    What we need to remember though is this is all about balance.  What we're really saying is you don't want to eat smoked foods as part of your daily diet.  As part of your daily diet, you should stick to raw, steamed, baked.  So, this list we've been going through is not intended as a "Do" or "Don't Do" thing, it's intended to say: in my lifestyle what do I do most often.  Do I eat smoked fish every day - if so, that could be a problem.  However, it is a wonderful treat to have every now and then.  When Robert goes out fishing and brings home some tuna and smokes it, it's just fabulous!

Rick Burnett:    So the most important thing about this list is that it's just a list of priorities - the best/optimum way to have food prepared: Beginning with raw, down to the last two ways listed are Salt/Pickled, Deep Fried.

Dr. Douglas DiSiena: Picked foods have a high level of sodium content so it changes the chemical makeup of the food - that's why you can take a hard boiled egg, put it in some salt and vinegar and three months later it comes out like a rubber ball - it totally changes the chemical and structural makeup of the food.  So, that's why we don't want to eat pickled foods every day.