Benefits of Eating Raw

Raw food diets have gained popularity in recent years due to celebrities touting the benefits. Actor Woody Harrelson, actresses Alicia Silverstone and Demi Moore, model Carol Alt, singer Sting, designer Donna Karan, and Chicago-based celebrity chef Charlie Trotter are all reported to have gone raw.

What is the Raw Food Diet?

The raw food diet is based on unprocessed and uncooked plant foods, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, sprouts, seeds, nuts, grains, beans, legumes, dried fruit, and seaweed. Eating raw, living foods is based upon the simple premise that foods in their most natural state—not cooked or chemically treated—are the most life giving and health producing. Cooking food above 118 degrees Fahrenheit removes the water and destroys the nutrients—vitamins, minerals, etc.—in raw food. What's left is a toxic, indigestible, possibly addictive substance, in other words, dead food. And you can't revitalize your body's live cells with dead food. The raw food diet contains little or no saturated fat and trans fats, however it is high in healing fats—those that are natural, unheated, and unprocessed as found in nuts and seeds. Cold-pressed oils, especially olive oil are also a great source of the omega-3 and omega-6 essential fatty acids so necessary for optimum health. These fats actually assist in increasing metabolic rate and may lead to weight loss. The raw diet is also low in sodium, high in potassium, magnesium, calcium, fiber, and health-promoting plant chemicals called phytochemicals. A lot of people believe that dairy is the only way to get calcium, however, green leafy vegetables and legumes are full of calcium. Don't worry that there's not enough protein on a raw food diet. The average American eats more than 200% of their required protein needs and most of that is indigestible. Protein from non-animal sources is actually easier for your body to digest and assimilate.

What's So Bad About Cooked Food?

Cooked foods clog the body systems, especially the large intestine or colon. The cooking process kills off the food's digestive enzymes, which allow nutrients to be assimilated into the blood stream and carried throughout the body. Without digestive enzymes, the food we eat acts like sludge, moving very slowly through the digestive system. Over time, matter accumulates and hardens along the walls of the colon. Excess toxins remain in the colon and recirculate throughout the body, causing auto-intoxication and creating dis-ease within the body. Cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and other serious ailments can be directly attributed to eating cooked food. Additionally heated or processed saturated fats create free radicals, which have been shown to be a precursor to cancer.

Eventually, on a diet of cooked food, the pancreas becomes enlarged and irritated, while other digestive organs start deteriorating. People often say that humans have adapted to cooked foods, but just because we eat them and are living longer, doesn't mean it's natural or for our highest good. Cooked food has a cumulative effect on the body, building up over time and prematurely wearing out the body. The dangerous effects may not be felt immediately, yet it is damaging the body a little at a time contributing to disease and poor health. For most of humans' time on the planet, raw food was the mainstay of the diet. All animals living in the wild eat their food raw and mostly fresh. Only humans today and domesticated animals eat cooked and processed foods, which have only been around for the last 100 years.

What are the Benefits of the Raw Food Diet?

Proponents of a raw food diet claim numerous health benefits, including:

• increased energy
• improved skin appearance
• better digestion and elimination
• weight loss
• reduced risk of heart disease
• less chance of cancer

Some followers also feel eating raw is living in harmony with the earth and causes less pollution and destruction of resources. Eating raw living foods may be the healthiest and most harmonious way to maintain great health for our bodies and the planet. Live food contains within it life giving properties. Every piece of fruit and vegetable contain an active, functioning immune system, alive with life-giving water pumping through their veins. They contain thousands of health-giving nutrients and conform to the biological design of a human digestive system. The sun is the source of life and raw food represents the purest form of transformed sun energy. Anyone wishing to heal themselves and the planet should consider eating these most healing foods, primarily quality, organic, homegrown, or wild foods and superfoods in their raw natural state. Following this path is not only the simplest way to choose what to eat, but is a great way to create quality health and spiritual transformation.

How to Switch to Raw Foods

The cooking and processing of foods has become so commonplace that most people don't even think to question it. However, the assumption that cooked and processed foods are as good as raw foods is only an assumption. If you haven't tried it you won't know the benefits for your body. Raw plant foods are simple to prepare, easy to find, and fun to eat. If you were to just stop eating cooked foods and switch to all raw foods, it would be a dangerous shock to your system. It's best to transition over a period of three months to three years or at whatever speed works for you. Start by including more raw food in your diet but don't cut out cooked foods yet. Eat lots of salads and drink fresh juices. As you begin to enjoy the taste of fresh fruits and vegetables, you will crave less cooked foods. As you experiment with raw food preparations, your taste buds will come alive and you will lose the appreciation for cooked foods. Experiment with foods you've never eaten like exotic fruits or seaweed and try new recipes. Every major health authority in the country from the American Cancer Society to the Heart Disease Association has been stressing the importance of eating more fresh fruits and vegetables. Are you ready to take responsibility for the health of your body and the planet and eat RAW?

So What Can I Eat?

Contrary to popular belief, raw food is not sushi. And it's not just lots of salads, fruits, and juices. It's a whole different way of preparing food. There are lots of books that provide a variety of recipes and ways to prepare raw food that will amaze you. You will not believe the interesting concoctions that can be created. Do some research and visit a raw food restaurant. Buy a raw food book and try some new recipes.

Resources

Restaurants
La Vie - San Jose, California
Raw - Santa Monica, California

Books
Raw Food for Busy People, Jordan Maerin
Raw: The Uncook Book, Julianno
Raw Food Real World: 100 Recipes to Get the Glow, Matthew Kenney & Sarma Melngailis

The Raw Truth About Raw Food

• For most of the four million years humans have lived, they have eaten only raw, living foods.
• Other mammals in nature do not show significant incidence of human diseases like cancer, heart disease, strokes, or diabetes.
• Water is the first thing lost when food is cooked, yet since our bodies are almost 75% water, it needs to be replenished in our foods and liquids. Raw fruits and vegetables are mostly water.
• Cooking renders proteins harder to digest and utilize and destroys 50% of the protein in our food.
• Between 50 to 80% of the nutrients such as vitamins and minerals are also destroyed when food is cooked.
• Heat causes pesticides to break down into more toxic compounds, which are more easily assimilated into our bodies.
• Oxygen is lost and free radicals are produced when food is heated, which have been proven to cause cancerous cells.
• Cooked foods destroy the body's internal environment, while living foods support health.
• Enzymes are destroyed when food is heated above 118 degrees. Without enzymes there can be no cellular division, immune system functioning, energy production, or brain activity. This causes accelerated aging and breakdown of body processes.