Raw Food Haven

As we all know uncooked (raw) foods are good for our bodies, this is because they have not lost all their nutritional value in the process of cooking. By accepting the thought of eating most of your meal in a raw state, you are well on the way to a more healthy life-style.

Now don’t expect to change your eating habits overnight as it is not as easy as you think to start eating foods in their natural state. We have been consuming most of our foods cooked, so we need to change from cooked to raw one step at a time.

Do not think you have to eat all your food raw straight off. This will lead to failure, rather mix cooked and raw (by adding one raw food weekly) and take the change slowly. Make your raw choices wisely and don’t abandon the foods you love, keep the balance (of raw and cooked) to suit your taste as some foods are better digested by the body when cooked, while others are just fine in their raw state.

What is good raw you ask?

* Most vegetables are very tasty raw (but you probably would not eat pumpkin or squash raw)
* Nuts and seeds – some do need to be cooked but most can be eaten in their raw state.
* Sprouts – still cannot get my head around these, though there are a lot of people out there who love them.
* Fruits – other than the odd baked apple I tend to eat all my fruit raw.
* Fish – some fish are very tasty in their raw state, and if you are lucky enough to have freshly caught fish on hand you will never cook it again. Sushi is probably the healthiest way to eat fish, why not give it a try.

A good starting point for changing to raw is to rather add the raw to your normal meal rather than take away your familiar and favorite foods. You may think that adding will increase your weight – nope – because of the raw state of the extra food, more energy is used to digest it thus causing more use of the extra calories you have consumed. An important point to remember here is that you do need to balance the raw foods with the cooked foods, this is to maintain the correct nutrition your body needs.

Remember, once you have started eating most of your food raw, your energy level will be a lot higher, you will feel a lot healthier and cooked food will have less appeal. So start reaching for the Raw Foods when you feel a snack attack, there is nothing healthier than a handful of mixed nuts or a juicy apple.

This change of eating habits will assist in maintaining your weight and some weight loss will occur if you are overweight (and not over eating the cooked foods).

The notion of eating RAW foods sounds foreign… even odd… to most of us when we first hear it.

When I first moved to Los Angeles and heard of eating this way, the very first thing I envisioned was sushi and steak tartare (which I tried once and thought was awful). But usually when someone is talking about raw foods, they aren’t talking about these foods at all.

What they’re talking about is live, nutritionally-dense, organic (when possible) minimally processed plant-based food. Not the “food-like products” that we’ve become accustomed to grabbing on the go.

Live foods that nurture our bodies, strengthen our immune systems and help keep us healthy. Foods that consist of raw vegetables, greens, fruits, seeds and nuts. Sounds pretty boring, right? But it’s not. I promise.

Although some people are purists, meaning they eat 100% raw 24/7, you will reap benefits from ANY additional amount of raw food that you add to your diet.

My twin toddlers and I aren’t purists. We’re what is considered “high-raw,” which means that our diets consist predominately of raw, live foods.

Personally, I strive to feed myself and my sons 90% plant-based foods with 60-70% of those foods being raw. A significant portion of the other 30% is lightly steamed or gently sauteed.

There are several compelling reasons for adding more raw foods to your diet. Here are 7:

1. ASSIMILATE MANY MORE VALUABLE NUTRIENTS

When food is cooked, its biochemical structure is altered from its original state and up to 90 percent of water soluble vitamins (vitamins B and C) and lipid soluble vitamins (vitamins A, D, E and K) can be lost.

When eating a good portion of your foods raw, you reap the full nutritional benefits of your foods and every cell, tissue and organ of your body benefits.

2. REDUCE RISK OF CHRONIC DISEASE

The typical American diet consisting of mostly commercially processed refined “foods” is very acidic.

And an acidic body is also an inflamed one. Inflammation plays a central role in heart disease-the number one killer of Americans.

Furthermore, when you eat an acidic diet, you provide a fertile breeding ground for chronic diseases such as cancer. Dr. David Servan-Schreiber discusses this in great detail in his book, “Anti-Cancer, A New Way of Life.”

Vegetables, greens, sprouts and some low-sugar fruits all add to the alkalinity of your blood, making it much more difficult for diseases like cancer to breed-therefore protecting you from heart disease and cancer… and many more serious-and potentially fatal-diseases.

Then there are the nutritive components of a diet high in unadulterated plant foods: the invaluable phytonutrients, fatty acids and antioxidants that further reduce your risk of disease by adequately feeding your tissues and boosting your immune system.

3. INCREASE ENERGY LEVELS

The increase in energy is amazing.

I’ve fallen off the wagon several times in the last 5 years that I’ve been practicing a high-raw lifestyle-and there’s a huge difference in the way I feel.

When my diet is low in raw foods, I’m very lethargic. When it’s at its highest, I enjoy a natural energy.

Why is this?

It’s because digestion is a very energy-intensive process, especially when the body is faced with heavily processed foods and large amounts of animal proteins.

When we free up some of this energy by fueling it with easy-to-digest foods, we FEEL it-and our enzymes are free to do other important work, like releasing toxins and healing itself.

4. EASY WEIGHT LOSS

When I first became interested in the raw lifestyle, I lost five very stubborn pounds pretty much overnight. Weight that I’d been trying to lose for months. This weight and a couple more pounds came off easily and stayed off.

The body has no trouble digesting most raw foods. It processes them easily and fully.

According to Natalia Rose, author of “The Raw Food Detox Diet,” this isn’t the case with processed and some cooked foods. Foods that tend to create a type of waste that the body has a difficult time processing.

Some of this waste remains in the body, stored indefinitely, contributing to issues such as weight gain and toxicity.

5. BETTER DIGESTION

Raw plant-based foods contain live enzymes which actually help your foods digest themselves.

Also, unless you’re eating a lot of improperly combined, complex raw dishes (which you can easily do at a buffet-style raw food function), you won’t have to deal with much-if ANY-bloating when eating high-raw.

I never feel bloated when eating high-raw. Never. Even if I’d just had three raw brownies with sweet raspberry sauce. I definitely can’t say that when I’m eating mostly cooked foods.

6. MORE YOUTHFUL APPEARANCE

Raw fruits and vegetables will hydrate and nourish your organs and keep everything more youthful.

A lot of raw foodists report the return of youthful, dewy skin and clearer eyes when they take up the raw lifestyle.

7. YOU JUST FEEL MORE ALIVE

You just feel more alive when eating raw foods.

I’m serious. You do. I think most (if not all) raw foodists and enthusiasts like me would attest to that.

I sometimes get an amazing “high” from some of my raw soups and smoothies. I also feel happier when eating high-raw. There’s a sense of “wellness” that you feel when you nurture your body with nutrients-especially when you eat large amounts at one sitting.

The consumption of Raw Foods is one of the most important keys to good health and longevity. Do yourself and your family a favor and begin adding more raw foods to your diets today!

Jennifer Minar-Jaynes is the author of NEVER SMILE AT STRANGERS. She writes at www.ProjectJennifer.com.

Digestion is among the most critical functions our body performs. When digestion is poor, and substantial levels of food remain undigested, these food residues can become toxic and seep into the bloodstream.

Digestive enzymes are proteins specially tailored to break down foods into nutrients that your body can then readily digest. The human body produces some 22 different digestive enzymes. Digestive enzymes release valuable nutrients from your food which are absorbed into the blood and used by your body to build and repair vital organs and tissue, to produce energy and to maintain a strong immune defense. Digestive enzymes, secreted along the upper gastrointestinal tract, help break down food so nutrients can be absorbed into the bloodstream.

Enzymes are proteins that are a component in digestion and in every chemical reaction in your body. These enzymes are energized protein molecules found in all living cells. The breakdown of large carbohydrate molecules begins in the mouth. In addition, they are protein catalysts, or specific substances that allow biologic processes to occur in the body.

Enzymes are a fundamental element of the digestive process. Enzymes can also be extremely sensitive and many can only exert their effects within narrow environmental conditions, especially to heat. Enzymes are an crucial factor in converting the food we eat into a form our bodies can use for nourishment and energy.

Enzymes and digestion problems are similar in many people no matter which behavioral, physical, or medical diagnosis you face. Enzymes are highly specific, both in the substrate they affect, and in the reactions they catalyze. Living foods retain their abundance of enzymes and nutrients. Living foods are the key to our health and longevity. In their book, Living Health, Harvey and Marilyn Diamond emphasize: “It is physiologically impossible for your body to use an inorganic mineral.”

The role raw food enzymes play in aiding weight loss cannot, and should not, be ignored. They can be integrated into a diet easily and have ample essential vitamins and minerals. Without these raw food enzymes your body is forced to create and use its own enzymes too survive. All raw food enzymes are destroyed by heat. Most raw food, like our body, is quite perishable.

Health care practitioners and others have used enzyme therapy for more than half a century. Raw food diets are also extremely high in fiber, and which is necessary for the body to perform detoxification. Today, there are many resources to help people into a Raw Food Diet: cook books, online courses, raw food restaurants and more.

Ron Russell is the owner of SunCafe Organic, a Raw Food and cooked vegan cuisine restaurant. He has lived a vegetarian lifestyle for more than 35 years.