What is the Raw Food Diet?
Have
you started
hearing about the Raw Food Diet? It’s gaining popularity and
buzz, not just as a diet to lose weight, but a diet for a long and
healthy life. We eat so much in the way of processed food that we
don’t even stop to think about what we’re putting
into our
bodies, and how far we’ve come nutritionally from our
ancestral,
agrarian roots.
A raw
food diet
means consuming food in its natural, unprocessed form. There are
several common-sense rationales for why this is a good idea. Processing
and cooking food can take so much of the basic nutritional value away.
Think of some of the conventional wisdom you’ve heard about
for
years, such as: If you cook pasta just to the al dente (or medium)
stage, it will have more calories, yes, but it will have more the
nutritional value in it than if you cooked it to a well-done stage. Or
you probably remember hearing not to peel carrots or potatoes too
deeply, because most of the nutrients and values are just under the
surface.
The
raw food diet
means eating unprocessed, uncooked, organic, whole foods, such as
fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, dried fruits, seaweeds, etc.
It means a diet that is at least 75% uncooked! Cooking takes out flavor
and nutrition from vegetables and fruits. A raw food diet means eating
more the way our ancient ancestors did. Our healthier, more fit
ancestors. They cooked very little, and certainly didn’t cook
or
process fruits and vegetables. They ate them RAW. Their water
wasn’t from a tap; it was natural, spring water. Maybe they
drank
some coconut milk on occasion.
Doesn’t
it
just make sense that this is how our bodies were meant to eat?
It’s a way of eating that’s in harmony with the
planet and
in harmony with our own metabolisms. Our bodies were meant to work, and
need to work to be efficient. That means exercise, certainly, but it
also means eating natural, raw foods that require more energy to digest
them.
Why The Raw Food Diet
Because
cooking
takes so many nutrients and vitamins OUT of food, you automatically
start feeding your body what it needs when you stop cooking food and
start eating uncooked, nutrient-rich foods. A raw carrot has
exponentially more nutrition than a cooked carrot.
Cooking
also alters
the chemistry of foods, often making them harder to digest. Why do we
have so many digestive problems in this country? Because
we’re
putting foods into our bodies in a form that we weren’t
designed
to absorb. High fiber, high water content fresh produce abolishes
constipation of the bowels, cells and circulatory system. Obstructions
are cleared and blood flow increases to each and every cell in the
body. Enhanced blood flow is significant for two reasons: as mentioned
above, blood delivers nutrients and oxygen to living cells, and carries
away their toxic metabolites.
Obesity
is endemic
in this country. The diet industry is more profitable than the oil
companies. Why? Because the way we eat and prepare our food practically
guarantees that we’ll overeat. Psychologists tell us that we
overeat because our souls are hungry. But in reality, our bodies are
hungry, even though we may feel full. When you start giving your body
the nutrients it craves, overeating will cease.
Eating
raw foods is
a boost to your metabolism as well. It takes a little more energy to
digest raw foods, but it’s a healthy process. Rather than
spending energy to rid itself of toxins produced by cooking food, the
body uses its energy to feed every cell, sending vitamins, fluids,
enzymes and oxygen to make your body the efficient machine it was
intended to be.
You’ll
naturally stop overeating, because your body and brain will no longer
be starving for the nutrients they need. A starving brain will trigger
the thoughts that make you overeat. The brain and the rest of your body
don’t need quantity; they need quality.
Raw Food
and Skin Health
What’s
the
largest organ in your body? It’s your skin! It provides a
protective covering for the other organs of the body. It changes to
regulate your internal body temperature. And it’s a good
indicator of overall health and well-being.
People
spend
thousands of dollars on skin preparations to make your skin
look
vibrant and glowing. They’re all topical products –
products that we put on top of our skin. But if we spent just a
fraction of the money we spend on these preparations on RAW FOODS,
we’d begin to see an immediate change in the texture of our
skin.
When
you eat raw
foods, you put more of the essential vitamins and amino acids your body
needs into it. You’re also adding moisture –
naturally. Raw
foods have a much higher moisture content than cooked foods, simply
because the cooking process takes out so much essential moisture.
Your
skin is a
mirror of what’s going on in the rest of your body. And when
your
organs and blood are fed the nutrition they need to function properly,
that shows in your skin. Get your vitamins and moisture from foods like
apples and carrots. When you do, then phrases like “inner
beauty” and “inner glow” will be applied
to YOU. Your
skin is what’s presented to the rest of the world and
healthy,
glowing skin makes the best first impression.
When
you start
adding raw foods to your diet, things will just naturally fall into
place. You’ll feel better. You’ll look better.
People will
react to you more positively. You’ll have so much more energy
for
your work, your friends, and your family. And this kind of energy is a
self-perpetuating thing. You don’t need self-help books and
expensive moisturizers and plastic surgery. When your body and skin are
getting their essential nutrition with raw, uncooked foods,
you’ll look and feel your best, NATURALLY!
Skin tone drinking
water, coconut milk, etc.
The
best way to
have healthy, glowing skin is to start from the inside out. Eliminating
caffeine in the form of coffee and soda is one way to start. Caffeine
dehydrates the body and skin. And lack of moisture is a sure way to
create lines and wrinkles. It’s also a diuretic, causing
increased urine output, again depleting your body and skin of the
moisture it needs. We try to combat this with moisturizers, but the
better way is to put the moisture INTO your body, not on it.
Drinking
pure
water, unprocessed fruit juices or coconut milk will give your body and
skin the hydration it needs. The colors in fruit juices are the colors
of the earth and these colors will reflect themselves in warm and
healthy skin tones.
The
overall effects
of caffeine on your body will manifest themselves in your skin. Heavy
caffeine drinkers can experience osteoporosis, headaches, depression,
sleeplessness. These can all be reflected in your skin.
When
you replace
colas, coffee and teas made with boiling water with water, fruit juices
“sun tea” and coconut milk, you’ll soon
start to feel
better and sleep better. Your skin will reflect the good health of all
the organs and cells of your body, once you’ve kicked the
caffeine habit.
Another
reason for
drinking pure water, juices and “sun tea” is that
when you
boil water, you’re releasing oxygen from it. When the body
rids
itself of toxins, it passes through the skin which is the largest
elimination organ. Raw food increases your detoxification rate.
Drinking water helps the body rid itself of toxins. Seaweed is high in
vitamins and minerals beneficial to the skin and also helps rid the
body of toxins.
To
achieve a
healthy complexion, drink plenty of water and eat plenty of raw food.
What goes into your body is reflective in your overall appearance.
Raw food, less water
When
you start
eating more raw foods, you may find you’re not as thirsty or
don’t need as much water or other beverages as you normally
do.
There are several reasons for this.
First
of all, raw
foods, such as raw fruits and vegetables have a higher volume of water
in them, so your body is getting the hydration it needs from foods.
This
doesn’t
mean you should stop drinking water or juices. You don’t want
to
adopt some of the more radical elements of the raw food trend. First
and foremost, listen to your body. It will tell you what it needs. If
you’re overweight, sluggish, tired, depressed, your body
might be
telling you to make some dietary changes, and raw foods might be one
way to alleviate some physical disorders.
But if
you’re
overweight and have symptoms of Type II diabetes, overwhelming thirst
can be one symptom. When you start consuming more raw foods, with a
higher fiber and moisture content, you may start to lose weight, and
that can go a long way to reducing your blood sugars.
If
you’re not
overweight, or don’t have Type II diabetes, you still might
find
you’re not as thirsty as you normally are. First of all, if
you’re drinking water and juices, you’re not
consuming
caffeine, which is so dehydrating and makes you thirstier. And by not
consuming as much in the way of cooked foods or especially highly
processed foods, which have astronomical sodium counts, you
won’t
be as thirsty either.
By
consuming more
raw, uncooked food, and pure water and fruit juices, you’re
putting your body into balance. Keeping sodium to normal levels found
in foods means you’ll start to require a more balanced amount
of
water. Don’t think of this as changing or taking
away.
Think of it as adding balance, and it will make the process of eating
healthier much easier.
Why not processed foods?
Have
you ever seen
a picture of your blood plasma after you’ve eaten a meal from
McDonald’s or Burger King? It’s not a pretty
picture. It
looks thick and cloudy. Fast foods are loaded with fat and sodium. They
use white bread and rolls, which means they’ve used white
processed flour, with very few nutrients in them.
And
how do you feel
after a Big Mac and french fries? You need a nap, don’t you?
All
that fat will drag you down and make you feel sluggish.
Going
on a diet is
hard, but think about some of the things you do when you go on a diet.
You eliminate those high fat, processed, high-sodium foods. You eat
less, true. But you also eat more raw fruits and vegetables. You drink
water. And the results of eating this way are increased energy, less
need for sleep. Processed foods, with their high fat content are hard
to digest. They take an enormous amount of the body’s energy
to
consume. When your body’s energy isn’t used up
digesting
all that fat, it’s available for YOU – for work,
play,
love, exercise – in other words, for LIFE.
These
aren’t
drastic concepts. You don’t have to make drastic changes in
your
lifestyle. But take a good look at what you consume without even
thinking about it. We reach for the potato chips, or stop at
McDonald’s or Taco Bell when we’re hungry and we
want
something in a hurry.
It’s
much
easier these days to have snacks on hand so you don’t have to
stop at a fast food place when you’re hungry. If
you’re on
the road a lot, and get hungry, pick up a bag of vegetables or apple
slices at a grocery store. Yes, it’s easier to drive up to
Wendy’s, but taking a few extra minutes, not to mention a few
extra steps, will be well worth it in energy and vitality.
Vegetarian compared to
raw
Is
there a
difference between vegetarian and raw food diets? A raw foodist is a
vegetarian, but one who generally is not going to cook his vegetables
or fruits. A vegetarian is someone who simply doesn’t eat
meat,
fish or poultry, but only consumes vegetables, pasta, and rice. A
vegetarian might eat meatless spaghetti sauce or order onion rings in a
restaurant. (Not the healthiest choice, but sometimes it’s
hard
to find something to eat in a restaurant if you’re vegetarian
– even harder if you’re a raw foodist.)
There
are different
categories of vegetarians, like vegans, or fruitarians, and raw foodist
is a category of vegetarianism. We haven’t seen anything
about
sushi being considered a raw food, but it is. Raw food, though,
generally means eating raw, uncooked fruits, vegetables, dried fruits,
seaweeds, etc.
But to
be a raw
food purist means raw broccoli, not steamed. To a vegetarian, someone
committed to not eat meat or fish or animal products, steamed
vegetables are just as good, although everyone would agree that
steaming can take out nutrients from foods, rendering them less
nutritious. A vegetarian might consume dairy or egg products; however a
vegan will not consume any animal products at all. And a raw foodist is
a vegan who consumes only uncooked, unprocessed raw foods.
Proponents
of the
raw diet believe that enzymes are the life force of a food and that
every food contains its own perfect mix. These enzymes help us digest
foods completely, without relying on our body to produce its own
cocktail of digestive enzymes.
It is
also thought
that the cooking process destroys vitamins and minerals and that cooked
foods not only take longer to digest, but they also allow partially
digested fats, proteins and carbohydrates to clog up our gut and
arteries.
Followers
of a raw diet cite numerous health benefits, including:
·
increased energy levels
·
improved appearance of skin
·
improved digestion
·
weight loss
·
reduced risk of heart disease
Raw only?
A diet
is
considered a raw food diet if it consists of at least 75% raw, uncooked
fruits, vegetables, sprouts, etc. Raw and living foods are believed to
contain essential food enzymes (living foods contain a higher enzyme
content than cooked foods). The cooking process (i.e., heating foods
above 116°F) is thought to destroy food enzymes.
People
who follow
the raw diet use particular techniques to prepare foods. These include
sprouting seeds, grains and beans; soaking nuts and dried fruits; and
juicing fruits and vegetables. The only cooking that is allowed is via
a dehydrator. This piece of equipment blows hot air through the food
but never reaches a temperature higher than 116°F.
Do you
have to
follow the regimen that strictly? Of course not. But it’s
certainly worth it to incorporate some of these techniques and ideas
into your diet. If you tend to snack at work, try taking in carrots or
apple slices. Many of the bigger grocery stores now offer packaged
vegetables or fruits that make it easier to pack them and take them to
work. We’re a nation of convenience, and much of the
resistance
to healthier eating is that it does generally take a little more effort
and time to buy and slice fruits and vegetables. Food retailers have
been catching on, slowly, and it’s much easier now to get
bags of
sliced carrots, celery, apples, nuts and raisins.
Of
course these
aren’t necessarily organic foods, and organic is the better
way
to go, but we think anything raw is infinitely better than cooked,
processed food. If you have the time, do buy organic and slice them
yourself. But if you’re in a hurry, and nowhere near a
natural
food store, then don’t beat yourself up or sabotage your
efforts
because you can’t do this 100% all the time. That’s
not
realistic. Anything from the fruit and vegetable aisle is going to be
better for you than a potato chip, or worse yet, a french fry!
Fruitarian
You’ve
probably been hearing a lot about the value of a raw foods diet. A raw
food diet consists primarily of uncooked, unprocessed fruits,
vegetables, sprouts, seaweed, nuts and juices. It’s a
vegetarian
diet, but one that rejects any animal products. Its central tenet is
that cooking and processing take out the majority of essential
vitamins, enzymes and nutrients that our bodies evolved to thrive on.
Fruitarians,
as the
word implies, eat primarily fruits, with nuts and grains as well. A
fruitarian diet also includes foods like tomatoes or avocadoes, which
are fruits.
Fruit
is nourishing
and refreshing for your health. It doesn't clog the body's vital
arteries; better still, it actually flushes and cleanses. A fruit diet
also lightens our bodies and spirits, in line with the general
lightening of our planetary vibration rate which many higher sources
tell us is taking place at this time.
You
need to eat
carefully if you choose a fruitarian diet, because it can be more of a
challenge to get enough essential protein in your diet. A fruitarian
eats nothing which has been killed or stolen. That supplants meat,
dairy, and plants with the thousands of fruit and nut combinations on
the planet. E.g., a fruitarian can eat an avocado sandwich, a coconut
milk shake or the purest coconut ice cream made from the milk and meat
of the fruit, veggie burgers made of lentil or bean paste or tofu, a
succotash of corn, limas, peas, and tomatoes, sweets made with pure
maple syrup or date sugar, pecan pies made with fruit sugars, fruit
shakes made of a mixture of orange and banana, pear and peach,
pomegranate, papaya, and plum. A pizza of tofu, tomato, and pepper (not
pepperoni), salads of tomato, cucumber, green and red peppers (but not
lettuce, cabbage, or celery), nut butters such as almond butter or
tahini, hummus {chickpea paste}. In other words, fruitarian
may
eat fruits 99.9% of the time, but occasionally do indulge in the
delicacies of other food groups.
Sproutarian
Vegetarianism
and
raw food enthusiasts fall into many different groups with different
theories of what kind of natural foods are best. Most vegetarians eat
fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains. Vegans eat no animal by-products
at all, including dairy or eggs. Fruitarians eat primarily fruits. And
some vegetarians eat only sprouts.
Sprouts
are very
nutritious because they contain all the elements a plant needs for life
and growth. The endosperm of seed is the storehouse of carbohydrates,
protein and oil. When the seed germinates, these become predigested
amino acids and natural sugars upon which the plant embryo feeds to
grow. This life force we eat is filled with energy which is capable of
generating cells of the body and supplying us with new vigor and life.
For this reason sprouts can retard the ageing process.
Sprouts
contain
goodly amounts of male and female hormones, as well, in their most
easily assimilated form. Research shows that sprouts are among the
highest food in vitamins. They are not only a low cost food but are
also tasty and easy to grow. Children and the elderly can make
sprouting a profitable hobby. All of us can profit from the boost to
health they provide.
Almost
any seed,
grain or legume can be sprouted though some are tastier than others.
You may try mung beans, alfalfa, wheat, peas, fenugreek, chickpeas,
radish, fennel, celery seed, etc. These are most readily found in
natural food stores. Remember to soak small seeds only for 4 hours and
beans for 15 hours. You also can mix these seeds. Get a 2 liter
wide-mouth jar and a piece of cheesecloth or old nylon stocking to
fasten as a cover with a rubber band. Put seed into the jar as follows:
2 Tsps
alfalfa, 2
Tsps radish or fenugreek, 1/4 cup lentils, 1/2 cup mung beans. Soak
these seeds for 15 hours and drain the water. Afterwards rinse and
drain well twice daily for about 3-5 days. If you wish to make larger
amounts of sprouts, so you may share with others, place 2 cups of mixed
seed into a large porcelain pot, in the bottom of which holes have been
drilled for easy rinsing. Simply place underneath the faucet and rinse
morning and evening with warm water. Cover with a plate. The seeds grow
beautifully and abundantly in a few days.
Juicearian
Many
people have
heard of juice fasts as a means of detoxifying the body. Followers of a
raw foods regimen also include juices as part of their nutrition.
Nearly anything can be juiced – fruits and vegetables,
primarily.
It’s a form of concentrated nutrition. Some raw foodists
drink
only fresh fruit juices.
In
addition, fruit
and vegetable juices are good sources of the traditional nutrients.
Citrus fruits (grapefruit, oranges, etc.) provide a healthy portion of
vitamin C. Carrot juice contains large quantities of vitamin A, in the
form of beta carotene. A number of green juices are a good source of
vitamin E. Fruit juices are a good source of essential minerals like
iron, copper, potassium, sodium, iodine, and magnesium, which are bound
by the plant in a form that is most easily assimilated during digestion.
While
fruit and
vegetable juices are the most common form of juice, wheatgrass juice
has been getting a lot of attention lately because of the denseness of
nutrients it contains.
The
primary
advantage of truly fresh wheatgrass juice - juice made from raw, live,
soil-grown wheat grass, is the apparent high level of life force energy
that it contains. It is one of the few truly fresh foods available
(sprouts are another). The grass is alive and growing right up to the
time it is juiced, and hopefully you are drinking it within a few
minutes or so of juicing. Most of us get our green veggies from
markets, and they were picked days ago and refrigerated - losing
vitality the whole time. (It is an even worse situation for fruit,
which may be picked weeks before you eat it, and in some cases, held in
cold storage for months - losing vitality the whole time.) In contrast,
one can grow wheatgrass indoors, and enjoy it when it is truly fresh.
In
conclusion,
drinking plenty of fresh fruit juices daily will cleanse your system,
make you feel completely energized and last but not least, you will
look beautiful. People will wonder what you are doing
differently!
Raw nourishment
You
might agree on
an intellectual level that eating raw foods is a good idea. But does
the thought of abandoning a lifetime of eating habits for the sake of
what seems like a good idea seem like more than you can do?
So
don’t!
That’s silly and the surest way to guarantee you
won’t even
give a raw foods diet a fighting chance. “Everything in
moderation” and we think that applies to even the healthiest
notions. It’s not healthy if you won’t do it!
Don’t
think
of trying a raw foods diet as taking anything AWAY. Try adding them in.
We think if you add in things like raw vegetables, sprouts, fruits and
juices, you won’t be as hungry and when you’re not
hungry,
you won’t give into impulsive eating. If you want that steak,
or
even a McDonald’s hamburger, plan for it and enjoy it. Once
you
start eating raw foods though, and notice how good you feel on them and
how much more energy you have, that hamburger just won’t look
as
good to you.
You do
want to be
sure though, that you’re getting enough of the right kinds of
nutrition. Eating raw foods doesn’t mean eating only the raw
foods you like. Watermelon is good for you, but it’s not
enough.
The same with most foods. You’ll need to do a little research
into which raw foods have the essential proteins, or what combinations
of food you need to eat to get enough protein. Raw food eating is
intended to nourish your body in a completely different way, but just
being raw isn’t enough. You want to do this to be in balance,
and
you need to balance the raw foods you’re eating for proper
nutrition.
One
way to ensure
that you are getting enough nutrients is to incorporate a new vegetable
every week. Buy something you have never heard of, like a
“leek”, or “swiss
chard.” You will find a
whole new world of tastes and textures open up to you. You
will
feel more and more deterred by fast food. I guarantee it.
Junk food
Try
this, just for
the heck of it. Once you’ve started incorporating raw foods
into
your food plans, keep adding them in and reducing the number of cooked
and processed foods from your diet. Especially things like fast food,
chips, cookies and snacks.
After
you’ve
done that for awhile, have a junk food day. If you really miss your
junk food, or think you do, then plan for it. Make it truly memorable
and junk-worthy.
If we
were gambling
types, we’d be willing to bet a LOT of money that mid-way
through
your junk food day, you’ll stop.
Once
you’ve
started incorporating raw foods into your diet, and getting most of
your nutrition from them, and stayed with it for at least a week, junk
food is just not going to have the same appeal to you. Because now
you’re thinking about what you’re putting into your
body.
And if you really think about what junk food does to your body, all of
a sudden it doesn’t look so good.
You
know, it just
happens naturally. We’ve started eating more and more raw
foods
in our home, and haven’t been able to touch things like
chicken
or a hamburger in ages. First of all, we really feel pretty strongly
about not eating animals. But have you ever read the warnings about
handling chicken that you’ve bought in the grocery store? Or
ground meat? It’s recommended that you wash your counters
with
BLEACH if you’ve prepared meat on them. Now, do you really
want
to put something in your body that requires BLEACH to clean the germs
from it off of surfaces in your home? Nope, when we see chicken now,
all we see is germs. And there’s no flavor to it anyway. So
why
bother?
And
other junk food
we used to love just doesn’t appeal to us any more. Nachos
and
cheese? Well, the cheese you use is so processed, it’s
nothing
but corn syrup and processed cheese and fats and chemicals. We can feel
our arteries grinding to a halt just looking at it. We don’t
even
use dips for our vegetables any more. We really do enjoy the taste of
vegetables and fruits all by themselves.
Cooked foods on a raw diet
Does
moving to a
raw foods diet mean never eating hot food again? No, it
doesn’t.
Sometimes you want something hot. Hot food has always signified comfort
for many of us. And on a cold, rainy day, carrot sticks or wheatgrass
juice probably won’t cut it for most of us.
Most
raw food, like
our bodies, is very perishable. When raw foods are exposed to
temperatures above 118 degrees, they start to rapidly break down, just
as our bodies would if we had a fever that high. One of the
constituents of foods which can break down are enzymes. Enzymes help us
digest our food. Enzymes are proteins though, and they have a very
specific 3-dimensional structure in space. Once they are heated much
above 118 degrees, this structure can change.
Once
enzymes are
exposed to heat, they are no longer able to provide the function for
which they were designed. Cooked foods contribute to chronic illness,
because their enzyme content is damaged and thus requires us to make
our own enzymes to process the food. The digestion of cooked food uses
valuable metabolic enzymes in order to help digest your food. Digestion
of cooked food demands much more energy than the digestion of raw food.
In general, raw food is so much more easily digested that it passes
through the digestive tract in 1/2 to 1/3 of the time it takes for
cooked food.
Eating
enzyme-dead
foods places a burden on your pancreas and other organs and overworks
them, which eventually exhausts these organs. Many people gradually
impair their pancreas and progressively lose the ability to digest
their food after a lifetime of ingesting processed foods.
But
you certainly
can steam and blanch foods if you want your food at least warm. Use a
food thermometer and cook them no higher than 118 degrees Fahrenheit.
Up to this temperature, you won’t be doing too much damage to
the
enzymes in food.
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|
Welcome
Gaetane
Ross
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