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Anything in a can is not raw. Sorry.
Darn it! I occasionally get Raw acai, frozen in plastic pouches, so there was a glimmer of hope.
What brand? Most acai brands are pasteurized…
I can look at the brand the next time I’m at the store (which seems to be everyday.) I want to say it’s Sambazon, but whoever it is has 2 kinds in the frozen food section. The Raw one has a warning label stating that it’s not pasteurized and therefore you could get sick and/or die from eating it. I’ve had it a couple of times, and so far I’m still alive.
I’ll let you know.
hmmm, from what I know, Sambamazon is pasteurized… I wonder how it is that you can find it raw…
The brand is actually Amazon Mania. The product is 100% Wild-Harvested Unpasteurized Acai. It’s sold frozen and comes with the warning that “This product has not been pasteurized and, therefore, may contain harmful bacteria that can cause serious illness in children, the elderly and persons with weakened immune systems.” They sell it in Mother’s Market.
I wouldn’t trust anything in a freezer or in a can, jar, bottle etc. of being purely raw. Even mangoes are not raw here in California. The only real way to know if something is raw is to grow it yourself…and acai is probably difficult to grow yourself.
Actually, Amazon Mania is the only brand that doesn’t pasteurize. Lucky you can get it where you live! I’d love to get my hands on some…
Well, the odds of me growing much of anything myself are pretty slim, so I’ve got to trust that some things are Raw in the stores, at farmstands, etc. Most of what I buy is fresh produce, but I do have Raw treats on occasion.
Morningtheft, We are pretty lucky that living foods are more available here in Southern California than most places.
i have heard (from someone in socal!) that they are now selling unpasteurized coconut water in bottles at whole foods.
Thanks pianissima! I won’t be near a Whole Foods until next week, but I’ll definitely check it out.
Remember that Freezing is just as bad as cooking. Anything you buy frozen, Paseurized or not is NOT RAW (most enzymes will die in the freezing process). When in a bind, take Dried Shredded Organic Coconut and cover with water in a blender and then strain thru mylk bag. Instant Raw Coconut mylk.
P.S.-If you need a straining bag go to Loews or Home Depot and buy Paint Straining bags (2 for 3 bucks) they make great mylk strainers or sprouting bags, alot cheaper than the websites.
P.S.S.- Dont be surprised that someday we wont be able to get Raw Carrot juice cause they pass a law!!
ecvraw: This is the first I have heard about enzymes dying in the freezing process and many raw food books encourage freezing. Where did you get this information?
kandace I have never heard about raw books that encourage freezing. Enzyme Nutrition by Edward Howell, who most consider the father of Enzyme nutrition states, as well as many other nutritionists, that the freezing process kills almost 60% or more of the enzymes in live foods. It is as bad or worse as cooking food. If you think of it rationally, if you take fire to something it kills it, if you freeze something for a long period of time it kills it!
actually, this is in the ESSENE book in the bible i read when i looked up sprouted bread online. something like “do not cook your food or it will cook you, do not freeze your food or it will freeze you”
if you wanted something cold, would it be ok to blend with ice, or should one ideally have everything room temperature?
Can anyone provide links to this information?
try thai coconuts- the sort with the white husk shaved into a cone-type shape. the water is really sweet, but with a low glycemic index. it tastes a lot like the stuff in the can; but it’s not pasteurized. plus, they’re really easy to open and the meat is like a soft custard. i get mine from food maxx; they’re like $1.39 each and are usually okay to buy non-organic because they usually aren’t sprayed. never trust anything in a can! i like to put the water and scooped-out meat in the blender together and make a shake out of it.
interesting fyi about coconuts: the water is full of electrolytes and is similar enough to human plasma to inject it straight into your veins! (PLEASE don’t do it, though.) they actually did ‘coconut i.v.s’ in WWII and saved lives.
oh, and for kandace and ecvraw: several of my books do contain recipes which include freezing to make ‘ice cream’ and whatnot during the transition phase…but i have read many also that say that any temperature extremes will destroy enzymes. so i never eat anything frozen. ‘the living foods lifestyle’ by brenda cobb is one such book, also ‘beautiful on raw’ by tonya zavasta. they don’t exactly encourage it, per se, but they do include recipes and don’t have anything adverse to say about freezing that i’ve ever taken note of…
In ‘Sunfood diet success system’ David Wolfe mentions that some enzymes get destroyed in the freezing process but no where near as much as in cooking, and that certain foods don’t get harmed at all during freezing- for example berries. It has something to with the cellular structure of the plant- I’m not sure, I didn’t read the book yet, Matt’s still working on it…
ecv raw suggested using dried chredded coconut, only do this if you made/dried it yourself. The stuff in packets is dried at high temps.
ecvraw Freezing un-germinated nuts/seeds does not denature enzymes… because they have enzyme inhibitors.
It doesn’t sound like freezing is just as bad as cooking. Cooking denatures all enzymes whereas freezing denatures some enzymes… I just don’t know by what percentage and at what temperatures.
Of course, that is if you freeze your own, since most frozen veggies were at least blanched before freezing. I don’t know how enzymes are affected when flash freezing foods (someone said Cascadian Farms brand flash freezes).