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Table of Contents

Introduction
The Psychology of Nutrition
What's Wrong with Eating Meat?
Why We Don't Cook
Delights in Your Kitchen
Recipes
Food Nutrient Index
Vitamin and Mineral Index
Index

Synopsis

The co-founder of the Delights of the Garden vegetarian restaurants presents more than 100 easy recipes prepared without the nutrient-destroying effects of heat. Using no dairy products, meat, or eggs, Delights of the Garden offers healthful, flavorful recipes for everything from Veggie Tuna to Un-Pizza to Un-Pancakes.

Delights of the garden offers more than a hundred easy-to-prepare recipes from the enormously popular restaurants of the same name, which have won legions of loyal fans with their incomparably delights dishes prepared without the nutrient-destroying effects of heat. Using fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, and seeds, with no dairy, meat, or eggs - and no cooking - Delights for The Garden includes healthful and delicious recipes for everything from veggie tuna, nori rolls, goulash, and un-pizza to banana cake, un-pancakes, and sweet potato pie. With introductory essays on the psychology of nutrition and the philosophy of vegetarianism, and indexes of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals, Delights of The Garden is an indispensable resource for the experienced vegetarian cook. For the curious cook looking for healthier recipes, and for anyone interested in meals with less fat and more flavor.

Reader Comments

• Wonderful book This is a wonderful book. It has appetizers, entrees, and of course desserts from Imar's Delights of the Garden Restaurants. My favorite, because it is simple and tastes great, it the basic Kush. It is basically soaked cracked bulgur wheat with seasoning and veggies, but the flavor is fantastic. The desserts are easy and taste great. For those concerned with fat intake, the recipes do not have a calorie tables and some do use oils. If you are vegan, some of the recipes call for honey, but you can substitute maple syrup to taste. I highly recommend this un-cook book. Included in the front matter is a well written discussion on nutrition and in the back is an essential nutrient appendix. One last note, make sure you have a good food processor for some of the dishes. We busted our cheap Regal belt-driven processor and bought a nice little Cuisinart direct-drive. Enjoy
• Good book, but not does not live up to its name Though the book claims to be about food that is prepared without heat, one of the primary ingred ients is "kush", which is made out of cracked wheat bulgur - cooked! Other than that, I think it is great.  - Palo Alto, CA

Excerpts from the book:

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF NUTRITION

We named this chapter as we did because it is primarily concerned with how we came to develop the beliefs and concepts that we hold about nutrition. The research that supports most of the nutritional information the public receives has been funded by very politically powerful groups like the National Dairy Council, the National Meat Board, or even the American Medical Association, in order to increase their profits. It may be difficult to believe that these organizations are not looking out for our best interests, but it is true. The economic structure of this country benefits those who are willing to make a profit by any means, even at the expense of the health of its citizens. It is important for us to take this seriously because if our beliefs are based upon misinformation or speculation, we could be damaging ourselves and those whom we love.

MILK. DOES IT DO YOUR BODY GOOD?

For instance, let's examine this country's obsession with dairy products. Over the years, the National Dairy Council has sponsored various advertising campaigns advocating the consumption of dairy products. The consumption of dairy products is clearly one of the most illogical dietary habits. We are the only the only animal that consumes the breast milk of another animal! Not only that, but we also continue drinking this product in various forms all of our lives while in nature a mother's milk is a source of nourishment only until the animal can digest it's normal diet.

The milk from any mother (human, cow, dog, etc.) is designed to meet the special dietary needs of the young for that particular species. In other words, cow's milk is designed for the dietary needs of a calf, not a human. During the first few months after birth, a calf's body weight increases at a rate several times that of a human baby, whose brain develops faster than its physical structure. In addition, cow's milk, as does human milk, contains an element called casein that is responsible for the physical development of a baby. Casein is found in much greater amount in cow's milk than human milk. Since most of us are not trying to raise 500 pound children, the use of cow's milk prevents our babies from receiving the necessary tools for proper brain development. The fact that dairy products also increase the amount of mucus in our bodies, which makes us more susceptible to illness, is the reason why our bodies, which makes us more susceptible to illness, is the reason why our children can often be seen with runny noses and are prone to colds and ear infections.

By bow many of you are probably having flashbacks of those commercials that say how important milk is for strong bones and teeth because of its calcium content. Calcium is indeed a very important element. Without it, our bodies would not be able to metabolize iron which is important for the development of red blood cells. Milk, however, is not the best source of calcium. Calcium can also be found in kale greens, broccoli, oranges, sesame seeds and unrefined grains. Once again, having been conditioned by the National Dairy Council, you're probably beginning to have doubts. Many people feel like they would have to eat a barrel of kale or broccoli has more calcium than a glass of milk. If you find that surprising, kale greens actually have more calcium than broccoli.

"STEAK" JUST SOUNDS BETTER THAN "CARCASS"

As you move toward a more healthy life-style, it is important that you understand the psychology of meat-eating. To do this we have to remove all of the mental barriers that have been constructed in an effort to desensitize people to the thought of going to a supermarket and paying money for what is actually is a carcass. The main psychology tactic that has been used in the promotion of a meat-based diet in the western world is that of naming. What we call a thing is an indication of our mental attitude towards that thing. In other words, if some word has a negative connotation, more than likely people will have a negative attitude towards anything associated with it. This is the case with the term "vegetarian".

Vegetarianism gained popularity in this country during the late 60's and 70's when people were rebelling against the status quo. For this reason, many people have come to feel that vegetarians are spacey or weird. It is this type of stereotyping that has kept the meat industry in a profitable position. As we examine the tactics of the National Meat Board, one of the most powerful political groups in the country, we will see how they have used language to prevent people from having any ill feelings about their consumption of animal flesh. In addition, they have placed in our minds dreadful thoughts about the consequences of a meatless diet.

Humans are social animals and have an innate desire to belong or be a part of a group. We want to be seen as "normal" or be a part of the "mainstream". Through the subtle use of language, vegetarianism has come to mean something abnormal. As a result, many people shun the idea of a diet that does not include meat because we do not want to be radically different from other people even if it is in our own best interest.

If we look further, language has also been used in ways less subtle. Let's examine the word "meat" and decaying flesh. This association is quickly made when the term "carcass" is used, although all three terms refer to the same thing. Likewise, we have come to particular types of meat in ways that don't tell what they really are. For example, there was a commercial that told us that hamburger was chopped steak. What is steak? People do not want to call meat by the parts of the body they come from because that would bring the idea of a dismembered animal to the frontline of their minds. How many meat-eaters would volunteer to visit a slaughterhouse to witness the harsh reality that the animals experience each and every day. It seems almost psychotic that we would rather not face the reality that we have a diet made up primarily of decaying flesh totally unfit for human consumption.

We also want to point out the fact that most of us do not even think of dead chickens, turkeys or fish when someone speaks of meat. As you may imagine, this is extremely profitable for the companies which sell these animals. Although eating chickens, turkeys and fish is practiced by some people in transition, this book does not recommend their long term consumption because there is no one particular type of decaying flesh that is less harmful than any other.

OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND

Many of us have pets at home that we love dearly and would probably think it would be quite cruel, almost barbaric, if someone were to eat our favorite pet. However, we are less uncomfortable with the idea of eating animals we seldom come in contact with alive. The reason for this is that we have been conditioned to accept the idea of eating a hamburger or a steak because the meat industry has been successful in placing considerable distance, physically and mentally, between you and the suffering that these animals raised for food must endure. Also, as we mentioned earlier, expensive advertising has been successful in preventing the human mind from realizing that a hamburger is in fact a dead cow whose flesh has been ground and placed over a blazing fire for several minutes. It should be mentioned that the moment the animal dies the process of decay and rigor mortis begins. Therefore, it is necessary for manufacturers to taint meat with all sorts of dies and chemicals to make the meat appear appetizing.

The majority of people have never seen a slaughterhouse. This is because slaughterhouses are placed in isolated, rural areas so that we don't have to smell the stench and hear the dreadful screams of hundreds of animals awaiting their unnecessary slaughter. From a mental standpoint, we no longer associate the meat we eat with an animal that was once alive and capable of feelings. How many of us get hungry when we see cows grazing? Probably not as many of us who begin to salivate when a fast food commercial comes on television. Most younger people don't even like to talk about how our grandparents used to cut off the heads of chickens. This is the reason that few of us would be able to witness the atrocities that take place in a slaughterhouse without reevaluating our food choices.

MAKE IT LOOK GOOD

Our culture places incredible emphasis on how a thing looks. Whenever someone tells us about a person they've met, we immediately want to know how this person looks. When we are in the market for a new car our final decision is often not based upon the quality of the new car and its record of reliability, but upon how it looks and how we look in the car. A trip to your local supermarket is another good illustration of this fact.

Marketing experts understand quite well that how something looks will have a tremendous effect on the success of the product. Consequently, their job has become to make things look good, even if these things are detrimental to your health. If an attractive packaging can be developed, people will be attracted to the product because, for most people, appearance is our primary or only method of determining what we will put in our grocery carts. Up and down the aisles of any supermarket you will find carefully packaged items with pictures on the front of the box. Where will the brave shopper find the list of ingredients? If the Ingredients are listed, they will no doubt be on the bottom of the package. Should the USDA one day decide to require the meat and dairy industry to list the items that were fed to cows, chickens, pigs, and turkeys on the packaging, the number of vegetarians in this country would certainly increase.

YOU'RE YOUR OWN BOSS

Some of us do not realize how important our food choices really are. Whatever you place in your body directly affects your health. Our medical experts would have us believe that it is alright to eat things not intended for human consumption as long as one eats them in moderation. We tend to disagree with that point. If decreasing the amount of meat and chemicalized foods reduces your chances of acquiring cancer and other diseases, it would be best for doctors to advise us to adopt a diet that contained none of these items. We have to understand, however, that our medical industry is not one based on prevention. It is centered around drugs and surgery for treatment once an illness has been contracted. This is a very important reason for why we do not receive the best nutritional information. In order for the health care industry to maintain its profitable status, it cannot deal with disease from a preventative standpoint. It is just that simple. In fact, most of us believe that it is more sensible to allow someone to cut open our bodies than to make some preventive changes in our lifestyle. Throughout this book and at our restaurant, however, you will find a wealth of preventive information and recipes that are part of a preventive lifestyle. We really enjoy seeing people making a move toward a healthier way of life.

A LITTLE CLOSER TO HOME

Historically, meat has been a status symbol. The type of meat you can afford speaks to your wealth. With the rise of capitalism and its materialistic ideals, this notion has been perpetuated by persuasive advertising and an unquestioning society. Let's examine how.

We have come to believe that we need a great deal of protein. Is this belief valid? Objective authorities so no. The World Health Organization, the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Sciences, and the National Research Council say that, at the maximum, we need only 8 percent of our daily calories from protein. According to Dr. David Reuben, a "safety" factor of an extra 30 percent was used to obtain this figure. This nutrition expert states that using this extra 30 percent only raises the income of people who sell meat, fish, cheese, eggs, chicken and all of the other high prestige and expensive sources of protein.

The misinformation goes even further. In this aggressive society, the media has created the impression that the strongest person is the heavy meat-eater or the meat-and-potatoes person. A quick glance at the animal kingdom tells us otherwise. The strongest animals by far are not carnivores. They are vegetarians and fruitarians. Who is the giant of the animal kingdom? he lion may be the most brutal and ferocious, as are most carnivores, but it is not the giant. The real giant is the elephant which eats fruits, leaves and young branches. Even if we look at those animals which biologists have found to be quite similar to us physiologically we will find vegetarians. The gorilla is not an animal to be taken lightly--It's diet: ripe fruits and vegetables!

NOT EVEN THE BEST SOURCE OF PROTEIN

Inevitably, vegetarians will be asked where they get their protein. A complete list of all the animals humans consume will no doubt consist of vegetarian animals like cows, chickens and turkeys. This should help us to understand that the person who consumes animal flesh is actually getting secondhand, fruits, vegetables, and grains. These animals have built their bodies on a vegetarian diet which becomes mixed with the poisons within the carcass.

This problem is even greater when the animals come from slaughterhouses. As in humans, a sudden terrifying experience sends a rush of adrenaline, which is toxic, throughout the animal's body. Under normal conditions, this toxin would be diluted instantly by the bloodstream. However, between the time of the killing and the death of the cells and tissues, activity is still going on. When the heart ceases to beat, the diluting process stops and the poisons begin to accumulate. With all of the death that we consume daily, is it any wonder so many of us develop cancers and other terminal diseases?

The fact that meat is actually secondhand protein is quite obvious when you consider our conventional beliefs about meat. If it were truly necessary for size and muscle, you would think that cows would eat them. What is really important for building our bodies are the amino acids.

Amino Acids are made up of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen atoms and when they are combined in various ways they make protein. The protein in the animals we consume has been obtained from the raw foods they eat, which makes it pure protein.

As humans eat animal flesh, our bodies must break down the protein form in which it was usable to the animal all the way down to the original atoms before we can begin building up protein that we can use. This eventually takes it's toll on the human body and reveals itself through rapid aging and fatigue.

In order to dispel it completely, we can take an example from Mother Nature to Illustrate our protein needs. I think we can all agree that milk from a healthy mother is basically nature's perfect food for an individual that is growing faster than they ever will again. A human mother's milk provides five percent of its calories as protein. Nature seems to be telling us that even when our protein needs are greatest, we only need five percent of our food calories as protein.

As we can see, the meat and dairy industries have been playing mind games with us to increase their profits. It was almost inevitable that we would buy their sales pitch. After all, when we went to elementary school and learned the Four Food Groups from our loving teachers, we thought this information was being provided for our best interest. Neither we nor our parents had any idea that the nutritional guideline was placed into the schools by the National Dairy Council and the Beef Council. What better way to ensure that your product will become such a way of life for people that they will vigorously defend its accuracy? Not only will people come to the industry's defense when challenged, but from a psychological standpoint they imagine that they could not actually survive without it. And, if by some miracle, they did survive they would not possibly be able to achieve the advertising industry's model of physical perfection.

OSTEOPOROSIS AND THE PROTEIN CONNECTION

The personal health consequences of a meat-based are astonishing. One quarter of sixty-five year old women in the United States have bone mineral losses so severe that the condition results when a person has lost 50 to 75 percent of the original bone material from her skeleton. Because of the propaganda put forth by the dairy industry, we would naturally assume that these women were not taking in enough calcium. The National Dairy Council has spent a great deal of money selling milk as the solution. However, many research teams, working independently, have studied the effect of low and high protein diets on calcium balance and their studies have shown two things: (1) low protein diets create a positive calcium balance, meaning bones are not losing calcium; and (2) high protein diets create a negative calcium balance, meaning osteoporosis is developing.

NO MEAT FOR THE HERBIVORES PLEASE

There are three classifications of eating habits: herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores. Herbivores have a diet of fruits, vegetables, grains and other non-meat items. Carnivores, like lions and buzzards, eat other animals. They exist exclusively on a diet of meat that they killed and eat their prey completely (bones, brains, eyes, etc.) Their diet is undoubtedly linked to their relatively short life span. For instance, when we calculate a dog's age we usually multiply by seven to get its human equivalent. A carnivorous diet, even for carnivores, does not make for a long life. The last classification, omnivores (bears), eat everything. These types of animals, however, are not naturally able to consume both plants and animals. Humans, on the other hand, behave like omnivores, eating everything from delicious salads to decaying meat, even though it is not our natural diet based on our physical make-up. A comparison of the anatomy of carnivores with that of humans (herbivores) clearly shows that we are not designed to consume meat.

WHY WE DON'T COOK

Traditionally, the term "cooked" has meant heating food to at least 120 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit for a given amount of time before consuming. This process should actually be called "killing." If we set any other item over such heat or even fire for even a short period of time, we would undoubtedly do considerable damage. Why then, would it be any different with food? When something burns, it begins the process of breaking down, and eventually ashes form. The moment we apply heat to food this process begins, as we can so clearly see with food that has not been cooked longer than intended. Food that has not been killed is food cooked to perfection--by the sun. The sun and the earth provide all of the energy and nutrients that the food needs to reach its own natural state of perfection.

The benefits of enzymes are another important reason for not killing food. Enzymes are chemicals present in food which allow reactions to occur in our bodies and contribute to the breakdown of the food in the intestines. The enzymes present in the whole (unprocessed, unrefined) foods are intact. However, heat destroys these enzymes and this forces the body to work extremely hard to digest the food and assimilate the nutrients into the blood stream.

In regards to our health, a live food diet would certainly bring about drastic improvements. We would begin to consume less food because more nutrients would be available to the body. All of those pounds that have been overburdening our bodies would begin to shed. A proper diet would also help to rid the body of those ailments we think our genes have complete control over. Problems like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, arteriosclerosis, ulcers, skin problems, asthma, allergies, and obesity would soon disappear. Our bodies would, in time, be rejuvenated and we would once again be able to get the full benefits of life.

It has been researched and demonstrated for years that a diet consisting of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, seeds and nuts is the optimum diet for human beings. For example, the Framingham Heart Study was begun in 1949 and is the world's longest longitudinal investigation into heart disease and diet. The director of this valuable project, William Castelli, M.D., concluded that "vegetarians have the best diet. They have the lowest rates of coronary disease of any group in the country.. some people scoff at vegetarians, but they have a fraction of our heart attack rate and they have only 40% of our cancer rate. They outlive us."

Perhaps the most obvious reason for advocating a live food diet is quite simple. Cooking is totally unnecessary. Cooking is probably the reason most of us eat so many processed, refined foods that only require reheating in a microwave (which magnifies the harmful effects of cooking, not to mention the unknown long-term effects of that type of radiation). The most nutritious food can be prepared quickly and easily without going through the chore of cooking. Why would anyone choose to put in a full day of cooking for only one meal when you could easily prepare a meal for a few or many in a fraction of that time.

As we look to cultures outside of our own, the benefits of a diet consisting largely of live foods are clearly evident. The Hunza people are some of the most extensively studied vegetarians. They have become world-renowned for being the healthiest, longest-living people in the world. These people apparently have no diseases. Such a high standard of living can only be attributed to their active lifestyle, positive mental attitude toward life and a sound diet consisting of about 70 percent raw fruits and vegetables. Consequently, as heat damages these foods, eating them in their natural state must be the perfect diet to nourish our perfect machines.

In recent years, we have seen the move towards energy conservation take place in industry as well as in individual households. The threat of cancer-causing air and water pollution, not to mention the potentially devastating deterioration of the ozone layer has everyone considering new ways to decrease energy use. So much energy is wasted by cooking that the practice of not cooking would have numerous benefits for the environment as well as our health. Common sense tells us that if we eliminated cooking, our energy costs would decrease while the energy obtained from the food would soar to its maximum potential.