Raw Food Benefits

The raw food diet is more than salads, carrots and celery sticks.
Raw cuisine can be delicious and interesting, or it can be dreary. Some of the world's best resorts now offer raw food menus and there has been a great effort by chiefs around the world to come up with recipes that are worth eating.

At least 75 percent of the food that is eaten in the raw food diet is not cooked. Heating food above 116 degrees F destroys the enzymes in the food that helps with digestion. Foods that are included in the raw food diet are fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, sprouted grains, legumes, seaweeds, dried fruit, freshly made juices, raw carob powder, cold pressed olive oil and certain spices, seasonings and mineral water. Dried food is allowable because drying doesn’t kill off the enzymes.

Raw foods are high in vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, dietary fibers, antioxidants and lots of live goodness. Most raw foods are easily digested; this saves your body’s energy for other things.
Raw fruit and vegetables are high in water content, this helps with the constipation that can sometimes happen on a high fiber diet.

Most foods in nature contain the enzymes needed for your body to break them down. When we cook food, we destroy these enzymes. This means we have to break them down ourselves using our own digestive juices.

The enzymes our body makes aren’t as efficient as the natural ones, and our body has to work hard to make them. This takes resources away from out body’s systems that keep us from being susceptible to illness, disease and premature ageing. If we eat raw food that helps with the digestion process; we don’t have to draw on these resources that could be put to better use.

One of the benefits of the raw food diet is active enzymes. Most of the foods in natural state contain the enzymes needed to break them down. When food is cooked, these enzymes are destroyed. This means we have to break them down ourselves using digestive enzymes our body has to make. This takes energy and our enzymes aren’t as efficient as the natural ones, and our body has to work hard to make them. If we eat raw food that has the enzymes that helps digest it; we don’t use our body’s energy to do this and we can live longer, healthier lives.

Fruit and vegetables have high water content, this helps with the constipation that can sometimes be a problem with a high fiber diet. Many people report having clearer skin and stronger nails and fuller hair. I don’t know of anyone who has not lost at least some weight when they switched.

Part of the raw food diet includes suggestions like which food should be eaten together, eating only organic food, and only eating sprouted grains. This can be hard to stick to for some of us, I found the best way to go at it is to start off with something raw every meal and then add a raw food every week. Add nuts, seeds or a salad or fruit to your meals. By doing this you are adding active enzymes that will help you digest the food faster and you are easing into eating raw.

Whole, ripe, raw, organic foods in their natural state are what your body needs to be vibrant and free of disease.