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The purpose of a raw food cleanse, sometimes called a raw food detox, is to eliminate and cleanse the body of stored toxins. This is accomplished using only raw and preferably organic foods. A raw food cleanse can last anywhere from 7 to 90 days depending on what particular cleansing instructions you choose to follow. The goal of a raw food cleanse is not only to eliminate stored toxins, but also to give your organs such as your kidneys, gall bladder, intestines, stomach, pancreas- all your organs- a rest from the efforts of processing hard-to-digest food products. This type of cleanse will result in a higher level of noticeable wellness and health.

Specifically, a typical raw cleanse will not only utilize 100% raw natural foods, but will also eliminate foods such as meat, dairy, grains, sugar, flour, cooked foods, preservatives, artificial additives such as MSG, coffee, other types of caffeine, soda, artificial sweeteners and alcohol. Just removing all of these foods from your diet will naturally elevate you to a healthier state of being. The most effective food to cleanse the body is raw, unprocessed, natural food. This is because raw organic food has about 80% fewer toxins than standard processed foods.

Raw food is an ideal internal cleanser. This is because raw is natural food. Unprocessed/unheated food is unharmed by the damaging effects of heat and in this perfect state, can effectively help the body release toxins and also nourish and heal the body.

The raw unprocessed, natural food used in this type of cleanse should also be organic. Organic foods are “clean foods,” and are free from the harmful pesticides sprayed on conventionally grown foods. The pesticides used on conventionally grown foods also depletes the soil of nutrients. So when choosing organic you are not only “eating clean,” but the level of nutrients is greater, which is important, especially during a cleanse.

Another important part of this type of cleanse is simply pure water and lots of it. Since you are encouraging your body to release stored toxins, drinking water helps to flush these toxins out of your body through the kidneys and even your skin. Water is a vital component of skin tone, brain function, metabolism, digestion, every organ system of your body. While pure water should be an important part of every day living, drinking water during a cleanse is more necessary to thoroughly rid your body of wastes and toxic materials.

Fasting may or may not be a part of a raw cleanse. Water-only fasting is an ideal way to quickly rid the body of toxins. Combining a single day or even a few days of water fasting with a raw detox plan is less severe and more gentle to the body than fasting for several days.
Another important component of a raw detox is exercise. Exercise moves the lymph fluid though our body, helping to remove cellular waste products. Exercise is the only way to move the lymph. Exercise also helps to tone the body while you are losing weight and aids in reducing any uncomfortable side-effects of the raw cleanse, such as a possible bout of constipation.

Who Should Do a Raw Food Cleanse?

A raw cleanse or detox is beneficial to anybody who wants to be healthier and wants their body to operate at peak performance. This internal cleansing will show on the outside and some of the noticeable benefits of cleansing internally will manifest themselves in better looking skin, weight loss, more energy and healing.

Even if you are eating totally raw now, doing a raw cleanse is helpful because this type of cleansing gives you different tools to add to your raw food diet. Some of these “tools” can be a day or two of juice feasting, a day or more of water fasting, a day of eating concentrated greens, and so on. The different tools will vary according to the type of raw food cleanse that you choose to do. No matter where your health is, cleansing using raw food for a specific amount of time will help you to achieve your optimal level of health.

Benefits of a Raw Food Cleanse

When you start to cleanse or detoxify your body you will notice numerous wellness benefits including weight loss, a better complexion and increased mental clarity. Some people have reported that aches and pains are reduced or eliminated and other health challenges have cleared up.

A raw cleanse is an excellent weight loss diet since it is both very safe and extremely effective. For those who do not need to lose weight such as athletes, pregnant women or those at their ideal weight, but want to be more healthier, feel better and look vibrant as well as other health benefits including ridding their body of toxins, a Raw Food Diet cleanse is ideal. All you have to do is simply add more calories in the form of nut milks, juices and/or greens.

A raw cleanse is beneficial for health and wellness for those don’t want to go totally raw with their daily diet. Doing a raw food cleanse for a week or more will not only cleanse the body of stored toxins, but will contribute to overall wellness since it offers the organs a rest from the difficult task of digesting hard-to-digest substances and those lacking in nutrients such as meat, non-raw dairy products, processed and cooked foods. A raw cleanse is also an ideal, but not a necessary way to start a raw food diet. After finishing a raw food cleanse, you have the option of continuing to eat only raw food to help you go on to better health and wellness.

How Often Should I Do A Raw Food Cleanse?

The choice to cleanse your body is totally up to you. While some do seasonal house cleaning, others think of an internal cleansing as “personal house cleaning” and do a cleanse seasonally. Others may do a cleanse whenever they feel their body would benefit from it. The exact frequency and times of cleansing is totally personal and up to you. Your body will thank you and reward you every time you do a cleanse.

How Do I Start A Raw Food Cleanse?

If you are interested in doing a raw food cleanse, my advice is to seek out a knowledgeable person who will help you in doing a cleanse. This can be a holistic doctor, a naturopath, a health coach or someone who is simply helping others to eat raw and has helped other to do raw cleanses. You should not make up your own type of cleanse, especially if you have never done a cleanse before. Your cleanse instructions should include a specific meal plan for each day of your cleansing so that you can have your food prepared. I had the opportunity to interview Jinjee Talifero, creator of the 21 Days Raw Cleanse. Read that interview and learn about the raw cleanse she has successfully guided many through at http://www.raw-food-diet-magazine.com/raw-food-cleanse.html.

No matter what particular type of raw cleanse you do, a raw food cleanse is a gift that you are giving to your body and your body will thank you by giving back better health and vitality.

Mary Jane Humes is the creator and webmaster of http://www.raw-food-diet-magazine.com

Mary Jane is a former LPN, has a BA in Biology and a keen interest in creating, maintaining and enjoying the benefits of wellness using natural means. She has always been interested in natural health and healing. While researching natural health supplements, Mary Jane realized that food was the best supplement. This food needs to be raw in order to give the most healing benefits. Her raw website was created to educate others, especially beginners, about a raw food diet.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mary_Jane_Humes

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When you are ready to put together a menu for a raw food diet you will find all you need to it is right at your fingertips. That’s right; the internet is your proverbial oyster. There are endless cookbooks and recipes at your disposal on the internet to pore over and make it just right. You will find you can comprise quite an array of dishes to fill a complete menu.

Menu planning for a Raw Food Dinner Party

Are you ready for the challenge? Put on paper some ideas and recipes for a raw food diet dinner party for your special guests. You will need to consider the tastes and textures of the raw foods you choose to make your menu a taste sensation! It could be fun tasting and tweaking recipes to please the palette of even the pickiest eaters.

The vast array of color available in a raw food diet will make your table look pleasing and inviting to all. A table set for a regular meal may look tempting with some variety of color in the vegetables chosen, but not as stunning as a table set for a raw food vegetable meal. For one when veggies are cooked, they lose important vitamins as well as their vibrancy of color to a degree. It will be exciting to see how people will be eager to sample each and every dish.

You can set a buffet setting and arrange the wonderful array of colors in a creative way. You can put out crudités in a variety of shapes with different kinds of dip at the start of the table along with other appetizer type foods. A large bowl of organic greens can be placed in the center for a base for individual salads your guests can put together. Different whole raw nuts can also be put in bowls surrounding the greens.

Some main course dishes you can use are Vegan Pizza, for which there are many good recipes online. Some organic spaghetti squash with a raw organic tomato sauce perhaps, or zucchini noodles sliced with a spiral slicer. Spring rolls made with cabbage leaves stuffed with fresh greens and whole fruits and nuts may be nice as well.

As with every good dinner party, dessert is the coupe de grass. There are so many to choose from. Of course fresh whole fruits are a gimme…but there are great recipes for cheesecakes, puddings, raw brownies, pies and tarts made with fruits and crusts made from raw nut bases…oh my!!! You can even make raw “ice cream” by freezing smoothies made earlier in the day. I believe they work well if you just add a little less water. As with the raw veggies, you can make your dessert table as colorful and appealing with the vast colors of whole fruits.

All in all, I’m sure that your guests will be both stuffed and pleased with the spread you created just for them. As we all know a Raw Food Diet is full of fiber and therefore very filling. You may want to put the desserts out a little later than you would with a regular food dinner party. Give the guests time to digest and make room for the yummy ending to a tasty meal.

Bon Appétit!!

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When one first goes on a Raw Food Diet, they may find it quite easy to eat whole fruits, vegetables, salads and nuts for the first few weeks. Just the fact that preparation is much simpler than a cooked food diet, not to mention the way it will improve their health is a wonderful incentive to do well with it.

Within the first week of starting a raw food diet, most will begin to feel the positive effects to their health and wellbeing. That becomes incentive to stay on the diet knowing it is helping to somewhat detox your body and improving your health. After a while though you may feel that you are eating the same things repetitiously and may tire of it.

If you are planning on staying on a Raw Food diet for more than a few weeks, or even years, you will find it necessary to look for a variety of different recipes. You may be really gung ho at first about starting your raw food diet, but if you don’t vary your foods or eat the same things all the time you may get bored and give up. You will find if you research and learn what nutrients come from what, you will be able to put together a balanced raw food diet that you can be happy with. If you don’t, you may start craving unhealthy foods again, and you don’t want that.

If you do your homework, you will find there are Raw Food diet recipes that can be substituted for much of the different types of cooked dishes that you now enjoy. You don’t have to live on just salads! There are appetizers, main dishes, and a vast amount of desserts you can make. Smoothies made with whole fruits and green veggies are both delicious and packed with vitamins, minerals and nutrients essential to good health. You can make raw food diet bars that are pleasing and filling. You can even make vegan pizzas by using a nut base for the “dough”.

You should start out your raw food diet with a plan to cover all of your nutritional needs. There are websites for people who want to track their success in losing weight, or just those who want to keep track of what they eat. These sites often offer a printable spread sheet so you can keep track of and monitor what you are eating and what nutrients you may be lacking in your raw diet. You can make a food diary and follow it for a couple of weeks until you are certain you are eating healthy in your raw diet. One such website is fitday.com. Check it out; you may be glad you did.

In the case where you find you are lacking certain nutrients, you’ll have to do your homework and find a raw food source that contains what you lack. There will be some foods that contain a certain nutrient you lack that you don’t care for. This is where the raw food diet recipes will help you. There may be a certain combination of the food you don’t like, prepared with other foods you do like so you don’t really taste the one you don’t like. When there’s a will, there’s a way, so to speak.

Your nutritional needs may not be fully met on a raw food diet, so in that case, you may have to find another raw source. Raw food diets generally don’t have enough calcium for our body’s needs. What the Government recommends in the amount of calcium we require is not agreed by many. Some raw fooders believe that meat eaters lose absorption of calcium into their bodies due to a substance in animal products that blocks it. There is nothing however that confirms this claim.

You may find some die hard raw fooders who use raw dairy products to supplement the calcium they are lacking. This is very dangerous however, as salmonella, e-coli and other dangerous and often deadly bacteria’s may be present due to the lack of pasteurization. Some may go outside the box for this and use a calcium supplement although not raw, safer. There are certain fruits and vegetables very high in calcium that could simply be eaten more of such as broccoli, cabbage, oranges, raw almonds to name a few. By adding extra of these raw foods in the daily diet you should cover the deficit.

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