Pat: >I do hope one of them will include a complete explanation of "life force >energy", which I would have taken as calories (heat)? >You are obviously in the expert class here...May I ask if this is >professional, vocational, hobby? --do you mind my interest?-- Tom: Life force energy is definitely not calories(heat). Consider two equal amounts of raw, whole wheatberries. Soak both batches overnight, then cook one, and put both batches in a sprouting environment. The soaked & cooked berries will have nearly the same calorie energy as the soaked & raw batch. However, the soaked & raw will sprout - they are alive; the soaked & cooked will mold and spoil - they are dead. The difference in the two is the life force energy, which was driven out of the cooked batch by the heating. (One raw food yogi claims that the delicious smell of cooking food is the life force energy leaving the food as it is cooked!). So, the life force energy is not calories, but the subtle energy of life itself. This energy cannot be directly measured but can be imputed. Note also that, despite claims by enzyme supplement sellers, enzymes are NOT the life force. Enzymes are proteins, and are matter. The life force is pure energy, not matter, and cannot be pressed into pills and sold. (If enzymes really are the life force, then you should be able to live forever by taking enzyme pills or injections; of course that does not happen.) Note that I am not criticizing enzymes here, only want to make it clear that they are not the life force. As an example of life force, consider a complete cabbage plant in the ground - it is alive, green and growing. Now cut the head of cabbage off, severing it from the rest of the plant. That head is alive when cut, and has some life force energy. But if you set the head of cabbage aside and don't touch it, it will eventually turn yellow, then brown, and finally gray as it dies and decomposes - as the life force energy slowly leaves it. As there are levels of energy that a food can have, and said energy cannot be easily measured, things can get complicated. This subject is addressed, in an indirect way, in an archive file titled something like "On the Definition of Living Foods", and I will re-post it at some time in the future. Thanks for your kind comments. I got involved in raw/living foods in the early 1970's (was a raw fooder in 71), and have been involved since (though I was off raw foods, eating conventional vegetarian cooked food, for portions of the 80's). My participation here is done as a service, to help others, and also to learn as well. It could be considered a hobby, if you wish. However, I am seriously considering writing a book (or two) on raw/living foods, as the books presently available range from very good to unspeakably bad. Oh well, that may be the future - we must live in the present... Tom Billings [log in to unmask]