diet frustration!

[seagoatdeb]

Food dehyd ration maintains nutrients? I'm definitely going to try the oven method till I get a dehydrator. Thanks everybody.

No, it does not. Artificially drying preserves fiber, vitamin A and iron but it destroys vit C and phytonutrients completely and greatly reduces virtually everything else. And, when it comes to parrots digestion, their dryness is 100% unnatural (parrots diets need to have high moisture).

Not quite correct with that statement, raw foodists use a very low temperture to dehydrate to preserve nutrition. you can dehyrate it to any level of dryness as well. But you are right in that high heat and crunchy drying is not as good nutritionally and you might as well cook it at that point.

[seagoatdeb]

Well, I use it to try and get them used to such foods in the first place. Then eventually get them into eating the foods fresh and raw.

I use a dehydrator for some of my food and my parrots food. I use the raw food, low heat setting. If you have used a low heat and you want more moisture in it, you can soak in warm water for a short time, and add it to your chops/gloop, or serve on its own.

[Pajarita]

Food dehyd ration maintains nutrients? I'm definitely going to try the oven method till I get a dehydrator. Thanks everybody.

No, it does not. Artificially drying preserves fiber, vitamin A and iron but it destroys vit C and phytonutrients completely and greatly reduces virtually everything else. And, when it comes to parrots digestion, their dryness is 100% unnatural (parrots diets need to have high moisture).

Not quite correct with that statement, raw foodists use a very low temperture to dehydrate to preserve nutrition. you can dehyrate it to any level of dryness as well. But you are right in that high heat and crunchy drying is not as good nutritionally and you might as well cook it at that point.

My answer was based on following chart which shows the loss of each vitamin when dehydrating food (minerals remain the same, it's the vitamins that 'suffer', except for B12 which parrots don't need because they produce it themselves), and, as you can see, the nutritional loss is quite significant although not absolute:

Vitamin A 50%
Retinol Activity Equivalent 50%
Alpha Carotene 50%
Beta Carotene 50%
Beta Cryptoxanthin 50%
Lycopene 50%
Lutein+Zeaxanthin 50%
Vitamin C 80%
Thiamin 30%
Riboflavin 10%
Niacin 10%
Vitamin B6 10%
Folate 50%
Food Folate 50%
Folic Acid 50%
Vitamin B12 0%

[seagoatdeb]

Pajarita, What temperature was this dehydrated at? Did they use already cooked food? Also what type of food was dehydrated? For example dried to be hard as a rock like peas can be is different from a dehydrated seed crackers where very little nutrition is lost. Whose list is it? Without more info that list cant be interpreted.

Most raw crackers only keep a couple weeks in your fridge becase they are not that dry. My raw seed crackers are flax seed with grated raw sprouted pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, raw sprouted nuts and then water, a seasoning, veggies can be added in too, and dehydrated until they are not watery. You can use a dehydrator or an oven.

Here are a couple links with more dehydrating info.

http://www.harmonyhousefoods.com/blog-n ... ed-veggies

http://foodpreservation.about.com/od/De ... ooking.htm

[seagoatdeb]

Here is an article that tells you how to correctly dehydrate to preserve nutrition.
http://foreverhealthy.net/resources/art ... n-enzymes/

Dehydrating leaves more nutrition than cooked but it does remove water, so that neeeds to be taken into account. When I make raw smoothies for myself, I eat a dehydrated cracker with them, perfect companions. When my parrots get some dehydrated seed crackers, they are served with raw fruits.

[DanaandPod]

What is birdie bread typically used as? A treat? I'd like link to a recipe please.

[DanaandPod]

I'll dehydrate banana chips as foraging treats. How long can dehydrated foods keep for?

[JessiMuse]

I did find some recipes on this website:
http://www.birdsnways.com/birds/rbreads.htm

I'm not sure how good these are nutritionally though.

[Pajarita]

Here is an article that tells you how to correctly dehydrate to preserve nutrition.
http://foreverhealthy.net/resources/art ... n-enzymes/

Dehydrating leaves more nutrition than cooked but it does remove water, so that neeeds to be taken into account. When I make raw smoothies for myself, I eat a dehydrated cracker with them, perfect companions. When my parrots get some dehydrated seed crackers, they are served with raw fruits.

The link on the second posting (the one above) actually contradicts the one on the first posting in terms of temperatures although the second one only talks about enzymes while the first one talks about general nutrition. It also references Viktoras Kulvinskas who, although self-proclaimed the 'father' of the raw diet, actually has no formal training or degrees in nutrition (he is a mathematician) not that this, per se, means that the man is a cuckoo but, added to the fact that he's a Bishop in some weird church that makes the raw diet part of their liturgy and that states that this diet was what made 'essenes' who lived before Christ live to be 120 years old... well, I don't mean to be rude but it kind of strains credibility, no?). The other link is an ad for dehydrated products... I might sound cynical but salespeople will always tell you that their product is great.

The chart I was referring to was actually a comparison between frozen, dehydrated and cooked. Here it is:http://nutritiondata.self.com/topics/processing

And, as an interesting note, freeze-dried actually retains more phytochemicals than dehydrated and, in some cases, almost as many vitamins. See this: http://preventcancer.aicr.org/site/News ... 7&abbr=pr_

and this:

[seagoatdeb]

Here is an article that tells you how to correctly dehydrate to preserve nutrition.
http://foreverhealthy.net/resources/art ... n-enzymes/

Dehydrating leaves more nutrition than cooked but it does remove water, so that neeeds to be taken into account. When I make raw smoothies for myself, I eat a dehydrated cracker with them, perfect companions. When my parrots get some dehydrated seed crackers, they are served with raw fruits.

The link on the second posting (the one above) actually contradicts the one on the first posting in terms of temperatures although the second one only talks about enzymes while the first one talks about general nutrition. It also references Viktoras Kulvinskas who, although self-proclaimed the 'father' of the raw diet, actually has no formal training or degrees in nutrition (he is a mathematician) not that this, per se, means that the man is a cuckoo but, added to the fact that he's a Bishop in some weird church that makes the raw diet part of their liturgy and that states that this diet was what made 'essenes' who lived before Christ live to be 120 years old... well, I don't mean to be rude but it kind of strains credibility, no?). The other link is an ad for dehydrated products... I might sound cynical but salespeople will always tell you that their product is great.

The chart I was referring to was actually a comparison between frozen, dehydrated and cooked. Here it is:http://nutritiondata.self.com/topics/processing

And, as an interesting note, freeze-dried actually retains more phytochemicals than dehydrated and, in some cases, almost as many vitamins. See this: http://preventcancer.aicr.org/site/News ... 7&abbr=pr_

and this:

Okay now I see why your data was off, you used the data from the dried section. Dried is not dehydrated. Consider dried vegetables and grains you would get for making soups....that is dried. All moisture is taken out. Those will keep for years in your cupboard. Raw dehydrated has to be kept in the fridge and only keeps for weeks.

I gave one link for raw food dehydrating that preserves enzymes and the other link was for all dehydrating, both just for more information. The temperatures dont contradict. One is for people that want to preserve enzymes. The other is for hotter dehydrating, not taking enzymes into account. So they are information for different dehydration styles. The link was not there to sell the bishop, or what he found for ages people lived in the Christian Bible, its just that he had info about dehydrating, so I used that link, it was the first one I found. I only used the links to show that dehydrating takes a number of temperatures into acccount and any charts comparing would have to state, what temps were used to dehydrate and also if there was protection from light.... to be usefull.