Why Raw Food?

It is often suggested that bad food habits are the main cause for illness in our society today; sugar, salt, alcohol, coffee and nicotine are just a few of the main known culprits and deplete the body of nutrients. If one does not compensate in their diet for the depleted nutrients they are most likely headed down a sick road.

Good nutrition is constantly related back to good health and is deservedly becoming more and more commonly linked to the healing and prevention disease. If like most wild animals we consumed food in the way Mother Nature intended us to; in its raw unadulterated form, and removed the toxin laden products listed above we would most likely find that modern diseases such as Cancer would not exist.

Raw Food Diet

The raw food diet is not a weight loss plan; it is a lifestyle. The basis of this lifestyle is not, contrary to initial thoughts and suggestions, all about eating sushi and raw fish, it is based on fresh raw fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains, legumes, seaweed and sprouts. Some people eat 100% raw food all of the time, whereas others may settle for a 70% raw - 30% cooked diet. When one is following a raw food diet all processed, cooked foods are avoided, this is because many valuable but fragile vitamins, enzymes and phytochemicals are destroyed by heat. By adding fresh, preferably organic vegetables, fruits, seeds, and nuts to ones diet, ones nutritional intake is increased and ones well being is greatly enhanced.

Here comes the science...

If we take a look at the physical content of fruits and vegetables we can see that around 70% is made up of water. What do you think is the first thing that is lost when a vegetable is cooked? "Its water content".

Our bodies are between 60% and 70% water, therefore it would make sense for us to consume foods that also have a large water content. It is the large amount of structured water that is loaded into fruits and vegetables that better facilitates our biological processes.

Not only is water lost during cooking but more importantly, enzymes that are naturally present in food are destroyed when food is heated above 118°F and the life force and nutritional value is diminished. The enzymes in food assist in digestion and absorption, and the more living your food is when consumed the more alive you will start to feel.

Enzymes can assist with every chemical reaction that takes place in our bodies. Without them cellular division, immune system functioning, energy production and brain activity do not function and no vitamins or hormones can do their work.

Every item of raw food contains exactly the perfect mix of digestive enzymes in order for the body to break it down completely. If these food enzymes are destroyed during cooking above 118°F our bodies then have to work harder to generate the enzymes needed to digest food.

And now the food...

If raw food is not already regularly consumed in your day-to-day diet, try adding a little at a time, until you maximize your ratio of raw food to cooked food without suffering hunger between meals. By all means, experiment! By eating a combination and wide variety of both raw and cooked foods, you can still obtain a lot of good nutrition and start to see some benefits, such as:

• Increased energy
• Improved skin appearance
• Better digestion
• Weight loss
• Reduced risk of heart disease

The mistake most people make to begin with is thinking that a raw food diet is boring and tasteless. However there are so many fruits and vegetables on the market other then your average apples, pears, carrots and potatoes that many are unaware of, that as one begins to eat more raw foods the availability of the full spectrum of fresh fruit and vegetables becomes more visible and noticeable. Not only is there a huge array of fresh fruit and vegetables on offer but there are also many ways in which to prepare these wonderful foods to make exciting dishes other then your average salad.

Raw Food Preparation

Specific raw food preparation techniques add more variety to the diet, these include:

• Sprouting seeds, grains, and beans
• Juicing fruit and vegetables
• Soaking nuts and dried fruit
• Blending nuts and seeds into pates
• Blending fruit into smoothies
• Dehydrating food to imitate cooked dishes
• And so on and so forth.

Finally some useful equipment, which is handy for preparing delicious raw foods are:

• A dehydrator - this blows warm, not hot, air through food at a temperature of less than 118°F
• A good-quality juice extractor - for juicing fruit and vegetables
• A blender/food processor - for smoothies, nut pates, salsas and soups
• A sprouter - to sprout seeds, grains and beans to add to salads or dips