Herbs and vegetable matter

[personman]

Are they a necessity in diet? I personally feel that the fibre is a desirable thing as without the stools come out hard and with difficulty. Anyone had similar experiences? Why not include herbs and vegetables? If not why not? If so what types would be the best? I am currently incorporating boiled cabbage and dried parsley and oregano as well as turmeric, garlic, ginger, cayenne, black pepper, paprika(all in dried or powdered form as I don't like to waste time cooking and minimizing preparation). What are the arguments for and against including vegetable matter in the diet?

[raw-al]

If it makes you happy do it. Some people say that veges have anti-nutrients in them, whatever that means, and some have difficulty with them causing undesired excretion issues.

Everyone is made differently, so I say, experiment with it for awhile and see the effect. I find Aajonus's daily juice recommendation to work for me, although I just have it periodically and it seems to act like a gentle cleanser in the positive sense.

Fresh herbs are the best/most potent and they all have an effect which may be what you want or don't want. Flavour and texture and smell can be your guide as well as experience.

Ayurvedic knowledge was originally gleaned from this. The plants and animals in the vicinity of yourself have to deal with the same climate/environment as you and are therefore a good place to start.

[TylerDurden]

With no plant matter, your colon etc. shortens, so that bowel movements become more frequent after a while.

I personally have found herbs to be a waste of time on this diet. All they seem to do is speed up the passage of food through my body with less of it being absorbed(such as with cayenne pepper and black pepper). Some plant foods such as sauerkraut just make my stools very large, which is merely a sign that I don't absorb much in the way of nutrients from them.

I stick to raw lettuce/radishes/sauerkraut/seaweed/onions/garlic/carrots/olives and that's about it, other than lost of raw fruits. I avoid all raw veggie juices as they just give me diarrhea and are not absorbed in any way.

[raw-al]

With no plant matter, your colon etc. shortens, so that bowel movements become more frequent after a while.

I personally have found herbs to be a waste of time on this diet. All they seem to do is speed up the passage of food through my body with less of it being absorbed(such as with cayenne pepper and black pepper). Some plant foods such as sauerkraut just make my stools very large, which is merely a sign that I don't absorb much in the way of nutrients from them.

I stick to raw lettuce/radishes/sauerkraut/seaweed/onions/garlic/carrots/olives and that's about it, other than lost of raw fruits. I avoid all raw veggie juices as they just give me diarrhea and are not absorbed in any way.

Just a thought Tyler, but the speed of the food passing through your system may not be the speed of digestion or the lack of absorption, It could well be that the food may have simply cleaned off, or accelerated digestion of possibly indigestible matter that was sticking to your GI tract with no real benefit to be gained from it's being there. Food is after all absorbed through the walls of the intestine and therefore the walls should be clean in order for the absorption to occur.

Now obviously if you have diarrhoea from whatever you are eating, that is clearly not beneficial and additionally, I am not suggesting that you modify what obviously works well for you, just giving another point of view.

In reality no one really knows what needs to be digested and what doesn't despite what some will try to claim.

In an internal combustion engine there are always going to be deposits from unburnt/incomplete combustion and so either it is designed to shed this material or it is necessary to clean it periodically.

The body is the same way. Most of us nowadays are underworked and overfed, and have a certain amount of indigestion.