Eating A Raw Food Diet

Eating a raw food diet is more about a lifestyle change than just a diet plan.

It involves awareness about what we are putting into our bodies. Choosing to eat living foods means that we remove cooked and animal products, as well as foods that contain processed and artificial ingredients.

The raw food diet is becoming more popular in recent years. Celebrities such as Donna Karan, Woody Harrelson, Demi Moore and Alicia Silverstone have spoken about their preference for eating a raw food diet. This way of eating is not fad diet and it does produce real results for everyone who tries it, regardless of whether they eat 50% Raw or attempt to go completely raw in their food choices. Weight loss and health improvements happen no matter what. The diet is extreme in it's simplicity. raw food diet

What exactly are raw foods?

When eating a raw food diet, foods are considered to be raw when they are not heated above 118 degrees fahrenheit. This is the temperature when the enzymes in the food will be destroyed through cooking. Eating raw foods gives your body an abundance of nutrition - vitamins and minerals, enzymes, fibre, healthy fats.

All fruits are included - apples, bananas, pears, grapes, berries, peaches and plums and the exotic pineapple, mangoes, passion fruit and every other fruit you can think of or find in the market.

Leafy greens, wild green and herbs such as all types of lettuces, parsley, spinach, chard, kale and arugula. There are many more.

Sprouts such as alfalfa, buckwheat and sunflower as well as lentil sprouts, mung bean sprouts and other soaked and sprouted seeds.

Nuts and seeds are generally included such as sesame, almonds, cashews and sunflower.

Raw foods are more easily digested and assimilated into our bodies than cooked or processed foods. Because they are also very alkaline, they are healing and help to optimize and restore the ph balance in our bodies.

Eating a raw food diet is healthy, restorative, cleansing and energizing. The raw food diet enhances digestion with a natural detoxification of the body and promotes beauty, health and longevity.

So what's wrong with cooking our food?

Cooking essentially alters the food that you eat. Nutrients are destroyed or rendered inorganic. The body can't recognize them as food. The enzymes are missing. Carbohydrates tend to ferment causing bloating and gas.

Cooking proteins and fats can create a waste product called lipufucin also known as the 'aging pigment'. This can build up in your skin and show up as 'liver spots' on the skin and eyes. Other toxic byproducts from the free radicals caused by cooked foods can further speed the aging process and damage the immune system.

Enzyme-rich foods in a raw food diet help with breaking down food particles in digestion, help to deliver nutrients, take away toxins and help to strengthen the immune system. All living cells contain enzymes but they are not unlimited and must be replenished through our diet. This gives our organs a break from constantly trying to produce enough to function optimally. Cooking destroys the enzymes in our food.

Cooked proteins have their structure damaged by the heat making them very hard for our body to digest. This results in undigested proteins sitting in gut and essentially putrefying which creates toxins.

Fats can also be altered through heating creating more free radicals. Oils should be unrefined and cold-pressed to retain their healthy properties such as omega 3 fatty acids. They should also be refridgerated in a sealed, dark containers.

Fibre when cooked becomes a mushy substance that does not properly scrub out the intestines. It can also ferment or putrefy in the gut causing gas and heartburn. raw food diet

Raw food nutrition

Eating a raw food diet will give you more vitamins than cooked foods and will contain all of the antioxidants and essential nutrients in their natural, digestible form.

The highest concentration of nutrients are found in raw fruits and vegetables. They are living foods containing life energy and everyone who embarks on a raw food journey feels an increase in energy. Eating raw foods is simple for your body so it frees up energy otherwise used for processing and digestion for you to use for other things! It also allows your body to heal itself from whatever conditions you are suffering from.

We are only given one body and it is up to each individual what they choose to put it is as fuel. With our society suffering from so many diet related problems such as diabetes and obesity, maybe it's time to turn to mother nature and give eating a raw food diet a try! Your body will thank you.

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