Raw Food - The Simplest Natural Diet

More and more people are realizing that the key to health is not just in the exercise that you do but also in the type of food that you eat. The old saying is that you can not out train a bad diet. But a health diet is not just for people looking to get fit. It's also for people that want to cure or prevent illness and disease, to feel better and happier or to slow down the aging process. Eating raw food is one of the ways in which you can provide your body with optimal nutrition. This article will explain the benefits of eating a raw food diet and how you can start following it today.

There are many benefits to a Raw food diet, or just incorporating more raw food into your current diet. Humans were meant to eat natural whole foods not the processed sugar and salt filled foods that are causing so many modern illnesses, diseases and obesity in Western countries. Specific benefits of eating more raw food include losing weight easily and keeping it off, curing heart disease, reducing bad cholesterol in the blood, curing IBS, acne and other allergies. People who start eating more raw food also report having more energy, and increased libido.

The reason that eating raw food makes you feel so much better is because raw food is richer in enzymes and nutrients than processed food or food that has been cooked too much. Our body needs enzymes to function correctly and many processed foods contain little or no enzymes. Cooking food at a temperature higher than 115 degrees Fahrenheit destroys the natural occurring enzymes in food depriving you of the benefits of eating food in the first place.

Further advantages of eating raw food are that your body is able to extract the maximum amount of nutrients from what you are eating, it is cheaper than processed food which isn't giving you any nutrition, helps you lose fat easily, it helps you think more clearly and feel more calm and contains little chemicals or preservatives especially if you get organic produce.

In order to start incorporating more raw food into your diet you must first consult with a doctor, especially if you are suffering from an illness. Start investigating which foods you can safely eat raw. Many fruits and vegetables are naturally raw food. Learn how to broil or otherwise prepare vegetables below 115 degrees Fahrenheit. Also investigate eating different kinds of nuts and sprouts in order to get all the nutrients you need.

When it comes to food such as meats, eggs and fish you must be more cautious. Since many of these foods are raised on an industrial scale there is more potential for diseases to spread and infect the food. There are people that claim that eating raw animal products is a very healthy and natural thing to do and that our early ancestors ate like this. It should be noted that those that eat raw meat prefer their meat to come from pasture or grass fed animals in order to lower the risk of disease. You should thoroughly investigate how you can eat these foods safely if you choose to do this, and again always consult with your doctor before changing your diet in this way.

There are many ways in which you can prepare raw food meals, either as salads, smoothies or sauces. The juicer, broiler and blender are some great pieces of kitchen equipment to get that will help you create delicious raw food meals, juices and smoothies. So educate yourself and start benefiting from raw food immediately.

The Top 5 Reasons Why You Should Consider a Raw Foods Diet

There are quite a few reasons why you should consider eating a raw foods diet. This diet, comprised of at least 75% raw, unprocessed, and ideally organic foods, will have you feeling better, looking better, and enjoying an improved state of your overall well being.

Raw Nutrition Allow You to Live a Healthier Lifestyle

When you switch to a raw vegan diet, you will be eating much healthier foods that are low in saturated fats, sugars, and sodium compared to cooked, processed foods. Raw foods are nutritionally dense without the calories of cooked foods and processed foods, so your body will feel full and satisfied without the need for excess calories.

You'll be able to eat in a much more controlled manor and eliminate cravings and hunger pangs that result in needless calorie intake. The result will be maintaining a healthy weight and significantly decreasing the risk of major cardiovascular related diseases, as well as diabetes and cancer.

Raw Organic Foods Increase Energy Levels

While on the raw foods diet, you will experience higher energy levels on a more consistent basis throughout the day. You won't experience the ebbs and flows of energy highs and lows that occur on an unhealthy diet of processed foods. This is because processed foods cause blood sugar spikes and subsequent drops, draining you of energy. With a high energy level that lasts throughout the day, you will be much more productive and be able to accomplish a lot more. Raw foods also cost your body less energy since cook foods require much more energy to digest than raw foods.

Detoxify Your Body with Uncooked Foods

Because toxins and other bad chemicals are abundant in processed foods, they accumulate in your body with this type of diet. When you switch to eating mainly raw unprocessed food, will body will expel the toxins until they are completely gone from your system.

The result is that the systems in your body will become more efficient and less stressed. You will see improvements in your circulatory system, respiratory system, nervous system, and immune system. You will feel healthy, alive, vibrant and suffer from much fewer illnesses, if any at all.

Lose weight and Look Great

People who put themselves on raw vegan diets have a much easier time losing weight than those who are on cooked food diets. Uncooked foods have more fiber in them so that will make you feel fuller without having to consume excess calories, and since raw foods are nutrient-rich, your body won't crave foods like it does when nutrients are lacking in your diet.

The result is less food in-take, as well as less sugar, saturated fats and trans fats intake, all of which pack on pounds when consumed with processed foods.

There has also been a correlation between raw foodism and healthy-looking skin. This is due to the detoxification effects and increased antioxidant intake with raw nutrition. Antioxidants eliminate harmful free radicals. when there are excess free radicals roaming around, this can result in dry skin, chaffed shin, and a poor skin complexion.

Mental Clarity and Psychological Improvements

Several people have reported a higher level of mental clarity and increased focus after switching to a raw foods diet. With higher energy levels and increased focus, the motivation to accomplish your goals and get things done becomes easier. Generally you will feel more relaxed and in a better mood on the raw foods diet.

So these are the top five reason to get yourself on a raw foods diet. It's important to realize that these benefits won't take place overnight, so stick with it a couple weeks and you'll soon begin to feel the positive effects of the raw foods diet.

A Large Variety O f Healthy Foods At A Natural Food Market

It is surprising to many consumers to discover just what is in the products that they purchase to consume. Grocery stores offer a large variety of foods, but often these foods contain processed and refined sugars that may not be the healthiest choices available.

As consumers have become more and more aware of the fact that many foods that are offered through the local grocery store are not ideal for their families, they are searching for a natural food market that carries products that they feel more comfortable purchasing.

Where a Natural Food Market Can Be Located

As the popularity increases with the natural food market, more and more of these types of stores are being found. In many areas there are natural food markets that are located in easy to access locations. A natural food market can be found by simply using a local phone book or even searching on-line for local natural food markets.

If a natural food market is not nearby, there are on-line stores that offer products to be purchased and then they will expedite delivery to the consumer. If a complete natural food market can not be located, many areas also have summer farmer markets that offer the consumer many choices in organically grown fruits and vegetables available in the summer and fall.

What Types of Products Can Be Found at a Natural Food Market

A natural food market will carry organically grown fruits and vegetables and meats for consumers. These products must meet the standards set by the FDA to considered organically grown and will not contain antibiotics, hormones or chemicals.

Other products that are found in a natural food market include processed foods that have been made with organically grown foods. These can include things like pastas, cereal, rice, cookies, crackers and other foods enjoyed by the entire family. What makes them unique is the fact that they are all organically grown materials that are being used, ensuring that the consumer is getting high quality organic foods for their families.

A natural food market may also carry vitamins and herbs that can be used for a variety of ailments and in helping keep a person in balance. These are also usually organically grown and flow with the rest of the natural food market philosophy of pure foods.

The idea behind the natural food market is to give the consumer a choice in products that are organically raised and allow for the consumer to choose what is best for them.

Organic Raw Foods and Your Family

More and more people are finding that friends and family members are getting diseases like diabetes and cancer. They hear that the only cure is drugs, chemicals or surgery. Can organic raw foods help?

You'll hear things like "your mom had it so you're going to get it" or "it runs in the family." You rarely hear that some of these diseases are caused by the chemicals that you intake through food and environment.

The number of chemicals in your food, water and the air are extremely high. What about typical vegetables and fruits that you get at the grocery store? They are better than processed foods and fast food, right?

Yes and no. A processed chicken nugget is more chemical than meat. Unless vegetables are certified organic then you might want to think twice. Vegetables and fruits that aren't organic have been tested at times to contain up to 20 different pesticide residues.

What about people who claim that pesticide levels are so low they aren't harmful. Is that why there are pesticide residues still present in soil five to 10 years later?

Eating more organic raw foods including vegetables and vegetable juice are going to go a long ways into making you a healthier person and not becoming a disease statistic just because your grandfather had it.

What about the higher cost of organic raw foods? The prices are currently a bit higher but it is well worth it especially compared to paying for high doctor bills and drugs later on. Investing in healthy food is an investment for having a longer, more enjoyable life.

What about the taste? When many people, especially kids, aren't brought up on vegetables and fruits they get the idea that organic raw foods may taste gross. That is completely untrue. My family eats many raw food recipes and we find the food more tasty and flavorful than most other foods.

Do your research and come up with a plan for your family. Start out slow, start out gradually. The most important thing is for you to start!

Raw Food Diets Secrets. Method #1 For Weight Loss

Raw Food Diet Weight Loss- Method # 1

You may have heard that a raw food diet is effective for weight loss. So if you'reconsidering switching to a raw food diet to lose some weight, you may bewondering whether you have to stay on it for the rest of your life, or whether you can resume eating 'dead' foods once you reach your weight goal.

If you're used to eating steaks, refined pasta, burgers and chocolate chip cookies,but you're willing to 'go on a diet' for a while to drop some pounds, you may bemissing the point and many of the advantages of a raw food diet.
To answer you original question: no, you don't have to stay on any 'diet' for therest of your life. No one is going to come to your house and force to eat only rawfoods. But the truth is that short terms dieting only yields short tem results, nomatter which kind you suscribe to.

If you gained weight and became unhealthy by eating your current 'diet', you maybe able to lose weight by changing what you eat, but as soon as you start eatingwhat made you overweight in the first place, guess what will happen? If you guessed that you'll gain the weight back, you absolutely right!

Although a raw food 'diet' can help you lose weight, where it is really powerful itthat it can help you become healthy-and if you are overweight due to pooreating habits now, then weight loss will be an automatic beneficial effect.
But once you discover that you not only lose weight, But you feel better, havemore energy, have fewer problems with allergies and a whole host of otherhealthy results, you may not want to return to your old 'diet'.
What many people don't think of is that feeling good can become addictive. Youmay be surprised to find that once you become healthy from eating raw foods fora while, you stop craving those unhealthy foods that you used to rely on.

Raw Food Detox Diet

Detox, or detoxification of the body is a common practice many people use in order to rid the body of toxic substances or lose some weight quickly. There are many different ways and many different diets to detox the body. Some of these are the dieuretic diet, the fat flush diet, an all liquid diet, liver cleansing diet and the raw food diet. Certain detox diets may be better for certain people, so it is important to look at each and decide which one would fit your day to day lifestyle the best. The detox diet that I would like to talk about here is the raw food detox diet, also sometimes called foodism. This detox diet is generally made up of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains, dried fruits, herbs and spices that are all eaten raw.

The first thing you will want to do is prepare for the detox. The safest way to do so is to slowly remove the foods that are not allowed during the detox from your day to day diet for a week before you start the full on detox. This means that the first day of preparation you will replace one or two things that you regularly eat during the day with something that is a fruit, vegetable or other food allowed by the detox. By the seventh day, you will have replaced pretty much everything in your regular diet with someone that is allowed in the detox diet. The other thing that you will need to do to prepare is create a menu plan for your detox diet. You will want to make your menu as appetizing as possible for yourself, but don’t expect it to be as good as friend chicken or extra cheesy lasagna. With a little creativity and searching for recipes you can however find some very tasty meals.

Once you have created your menu plan, create a grocery list and go shopping the day before you start the detox. You are now ready to begin your raw food detox diet.

Generally the first couple days of any detox are the hardest days, so it is important to keep any temptations out of sight and as out of mind as possible. It may take a lot of will power but you will find as you are on the detox for longer that it will become easier, and believe me, when you start seeing those results of how much better you feel or how much weight you have lost, you will want to keep the detox going strong.

With the raw food diet it may be a little costly to purchase all of the fruits and vegetables that you will need, but it is important not to skimp or cheat. Some great meals you can make are fresh fruit salads, mixed salads with other various vegetables such as tomatoes, onions, parsley and other dressings, raw mixed vegetable soup, avocado and even raspberry and banana sorbet. You should be able to find these special raw diet recipes as well as many others with just a little searching online. The important thing with a raw food detox diet is that you make a plan and stick with it.

4 Ways to Improve Your Raw Food Diet

Recently I reviewed an essay on evolution and the human diet and concluded with 4 main ways to improve the modern human diet:

1. Eliminate Salt Intake
2. Eliminate Grains and Replace with Fruits and Vegetables, with an emphasis on sweet fruit
3. Exercise Everyday
4. Limit Fat Intake

Unfortunately, modern Americans with their SAD diet are not the only ones guilty of ignoring the lifestyle points above. Many health conscious individuals and their so-called nutritious diets fail as well.

For instance, vegans are known for eating tons of grain-based meals coupled with staggering levels of salt and oil. And while many vegans don't struggle with hyperadiposity, there is definitely no shortage of under-muscled veg-heads.

But what about RAW vegans? Well, it seems that there is much room for improvement amongst this special class of health hobbyists as well.

Salt

The average raw foodist eats too much salt, as well as other spices and condiments. Here's a raw soup recipe I found while scouring the web:

* South River unpasteurized miso
* Tomato concentrate by Premier Research
* Hijiki
* Goji Berries
* Hemp Seeds
* Raw Honey
* Sea Salt (pink himalayan salt is a great option)
* Other seaweed (optional)
* Nutritional flakes (optional)
* Agaricus mushroom powder (optional)

Can this really be considered a recipe? It seems to be made up of flavorings rather than actual nutritious food.

Grains Over Fruits and Vegetables

You would think that most raw foodists would naturally favor ripe fruits and veggies over difficult to digest grains.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. Many cooked-made-raw recipes, like burgers, wraps, and pizzas, use sprouted grains.

Here's an example of a raw pizza:

* 400g sprouted wheat (or sprouted buckwheat)
* 2 medium fresh tomatoes
* ½ a medium sized onion
* 6-8 sundried tomato halves (ideally pre-soaked)
* About 10 leaves of fresh basil
* Liberal shaking of Italian dried herbs mix
* 1 clove garlic
* ⅓ cup of olive oil

And while many mainstream raw foodists do eat good amounts of greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc., they put WAY too little emphasis on sweet fruit. Some even shun fruit completely!

For more on the problem with eating grains, check out my article here.

Exercise

I don't know what it is, but mainstream raw food vegans seem to HATE to exercise...not including meditation and low-intensity yoga, of course. ;)

Actually I DO know why: they don't eat enough calories! It's impossible to find the energy to work up a good sweat when you're living on heavy fats and low-calorie veggies.

This is why it's so common to see super skinny, yet still over-fat and under-muscled raw foodists.

Fat

Here's the big one: raw foodists eat way too many avocados, nuts, seeds, and oils. They're used in salads, soups, salsas, sauces, and even sweet desserts!

ESPECIALLY the desserts! Here are the ingredients for an almond cake recipe:

* 1 cup walnuts
* 2/3 cup almonds
* 1 cup pitted, packed medjool dates
* 1/2 teaspoon orange zest
* 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

And that doesn't include the almond creme...

* 1 cup cashews
* 1/3 cup almond milk
* 1/3 cup melted coconut oil
* 3 tablespoons maple syrup
* 1 1/2 -2 teaspoons pure almond extract
* 2 tablespoons chopped almonds

...or the whipped creme...

* 3/4 cup almond milk
* 1/2 cup cashews
* 1/2 cup walnuts
* 3 tablespoons cacao powder
* 3 tablespoons maple syrup
* 2 teaspoons carob powder
* Seeds of 1/2 vanilla bean
* Pinch celtic sea salt
* 2 tablespoons melted cacao butter
* 1 tablespoons coconut oil

...that go along with it.

Holy Cannoli!

No wonder so many raw foodists have issues with candida overgrowth.

Raw Rules for Everyone

So yea, unfortunately cooked food lovers are NOT the only ones guilty of dietary sin. But that's okay, because you definitely don't have to follow the trend:

1. Eliminate Salt Intake
2. Eliminate Grains and Replace with Fruits and Vegetables, with an emphasis on sweet fruit
3. Exercise Everyday
4. Limit Fat Intake

No matter what your current diet, you will see tremendous health gains by adopting the 4 guidelines above.

Go raw and be fit,