So we have another question.
This is a good one.
Does cooking vegetables release more nutrients?
Does cooking vegetables release more nutrients?
Well, release or, you know, deplete, you know, it all depends.
Raw vegetables like spinach, lettuce, you know, mosh, cilantro, parsley, those are herbs though.
You know, celery, that's an herb though.
Raw vegetables like raw asparagus, that's a good one.
You know, raw vegetables do hold different powers.
They digest really easy, even though that seems quite, you know,
quite the contrary of what's, you know, talked about or considered out there.
But they do assimilate.
They do digest easier.
You just feel them a little bit more because there's a lot of roughage.
So for some people, they may feel it go down into their system and through their system.
But it does digest easier because it's so packed with enzymes that actually help with the digestion process.
But, you know, steamed cooked vegetables are okay too.
There's nothing wrong with that.
There are vegetables that you can extract better nutrients eating them cooked than eating them raw.
So it's kind of a combination. It's a complete combination. I mean, there's no question you can do, you know, raw broccoli. There's great things you get out of raw broccoli, like medicinal properties, antiviral medicinal properties you get out of raw broccoli.
but there's also some nutrients you don't get out of eating raw broccoli.
And then if you eat cooked broccoli, you extract more of these nutrients,
these micronutrients.
You can get more out of there when they're steamed or, you know,
and they can be steamed more than lightly.
They could steam till the broccoli is soft.
It's another thing out there.
It's kind of a trendy concern is, well, if you steam your vegetables so soft,
then you, you know, lose all their powers and you might want to consider steaming them just
lightly steamed. That's not necessarily true. Lightly steamed is still good if you like them
crunchy and steamed, but steaming soft is okay too. Like for instance, if you steam potato soft,
you know, uh, you actually get a serious micronutrients out of it. Um, potatoes offer
L-lysine, which kills most viruses. So, you know, we, and you can't get that out of the potato.
Otherwise you have to steam it. And same thing with sweet potato steaming. It, um, brings out
phytochemicals for the reproductive system. But if you eat the sweet potato raw, you don't get all
those phytochemicals for the reproductive system. So what I'm trying to say is a combination of both
like lettuces, spinaches, you know, spinach, um, uh, cabbage. You don't have to steam really.
You can do lots of fresh mustard greens, kale. You can do them raw and you don't have to steam
them, uh, to extract anything. And there's fruits like zucchini. Um, there's fruits like zucchini,
tomatoes. Um, you don't, you can eat zucchini and tomato raw and you can cook it and make it
steamed. I think they both actually work, work both ways on that. Um, but the bottom line is,
as long as you're getting more fruits and vegetables in you, I am happy. There's no
question. Your body will thank you. That's why I'm happy because your body will appreciate it.
And that means everything to me is your body getting when it needs. So, you know, you can do
both. I don't recommend steaming greens though too often like spinach. Don't steam spinach.
Raw spinach is way better for you. A lot of concerns out there with oxalic acid,
oxalates and oxalic acid and so forth. And what happens, believe it or not, is that when
spinach is steamed or cooked, it alters the oxalic acid, makes it into a form that becomes
more damaging. If you eat raw spinach, raw, I mean, eat it in a raw state, it's way safer. In fact,
even healthier. But regardless, anything you want to steam in the end or saute or cook or roast,
I'm okay as long as we're getting more fruits and vegetables. But it's a really good question.
I think there should be a balance. You should get whatever raw fruits and vegetables that you can
get in you and fruit, you know, whatever vegetables you can get in you that are raw or leafy greens,
raw cauliflower is a pretty easy one to eat. And then, you know, all the leafy greens and then
whatever cooked vegetables you want to get in you. So fantastic. Um, here's a question here.
How much water should I drink a day? That's a good question. You know, everybody's different.
I know people that eat a lot more fruit and salads and there's water in those naturally.
So when you're eating cucumbers and tomatoes and celery on top of your salad and plus, you know, lettuces, romaine lettuce, butter leaf lettuce, there's a lot of water content in that.
And you got lemon squeezed on your salad and orange squeezes on your salad.
And then you eat a smoothie in the morning.
You're getting a lot of fluid intake.
or you juice a celery juice, which is one of my favorites.
If you keep an eye on everything I do, the celery juice is one of my favorite things to do.
So if someone has a higher water content diet, then we're getting a lot more water in the system.
If someone is drinking coffee and they're eating everything cooked
and everything's cooked across the board and they're eating donuts or whatever they're eating
all the way to the end of the day. They're having some chicken and rice or cooked vegetables.
They're not getting a high water content. So they're going to have to drink more water.
That's just the way the body works. I mean, we are made out of water. We have to respect that
and honor that. It's very important. So the deal is, is what we want is to work with that water
content level and keep us from getting chronically dehydrated. So how much water would we have to
drink. You know, the, the consensus is what eight ounce, you know, eight glasses a day,
eight cups a day or eight glasses a day. I think that's what the consensus is out there.
Um, I'd say 60 ounces for someone if they're literally just doing all, uh, cooked food and
coffee and stimulants, things that are very dehydrating diuretics and so forth, 60 ounces
minimum of water and try to make that water living. Squeeze some lemon or lime in that water,
squeeze a little grapefruit or squeeze, squeeze a little, um, orange in that water and bring it
back to life. So that's, that's a minimum though, is what I'm talking about. 60 ounces. You can buzz
through that pretty quick. So that's for someone really, you know, living a dehydrated life.
Someone who's eating lots of salads. They have lots of fruits. They're having some juices.
They're having some smoothies, probably could get by with, you know, they can probably get by with 40 ounces a day, 30 to 40 ounces a day, but that's bare minimum.
And then there's coconut water that could be added in along the way and herbal teas.
So you don't have to drink straight water.
You can do herbal teas.
That's got some hydration factor involved, except unless it's a real diuretic herb like green tea.
green tea dehydrates you. So, um, you know, but chamomile tea, natal leaf tea, lemon balm tea,
these aren't, these are not dehydrating. Peppermint tea, spearmint tea, these are not
dehydrating. So fantastic. Um, that was a really good question. And so we want to be hydrated.
We want to work with our water intake, and then you have to monitor how much you're peeing,
how much you're eliminating with your urine. If you're, if you're not peeing too often,
And then you got to step it up, whatever it is.
If you're, if you, you should be peeing on the hour at once an hour, you should have
to pee.
And look, if you're hydrated enough and you're peeing every half an hour, fantastic.
But once an hour, that should be the alarm bells.
If you're not peeing, if you're peeing every two hours, if you're urinating every two hours
or every three hours, now we know we're, we're in dehydrated land.
Fantastic.
So these questions are, are wonderful.
We'll move on to the next question.
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