We encourage everyone to eat the freshest foods that they possibly can. More important is to feed your children the freshest possible foods since their bodies are growing and forming. They receive many benefits from the special quality of fresh and living foods. By living foods we are talking about foods that are actually alive when we eat them.
Garlic cloves are alive.
Whole onions, whole potatoes, and whole cabbages will root and sprout from their raw food state. When we eat unprocessed seeds that are still viable we are eating living foods. Of course many foods are no longer alive once harvested. In this state, the sooner we eat the fruits or vegetables after harvest, the less degradation there is to the fresh food we are consuming. Vegetables and fruits that are refrigerated and shipped thousands of miles over several days are not the same thing as vegetables and fruits that are picked and eaten the same day.