Raw Food Haven

One of the most common disease that affect people from all ages is asthma. Asthma basically targets the air passages which are responsible for bringing oxygen and carbon dioxide to and from the lungs. When asthma attacks, the interior walls of these airways become swollen, thus, making it hard for a person to breathe. This swelling or inflammation is more likely caused by free radicals and allergens that a person may have inhaled.

Asthma can cause serious discomfort. If you have asthma, you will know how difficult it is to deal with this kind of recurring respiratory disease. The worst thing about asthma is that is not completely curable. This means that once you have been diagnosed with this disease, it can accompany you through your whole life. Though asthma cannot be fully treated, you can do many ways to manage it.

There are many preventive measures that you can do in order to lessen asthma attacks. One of these measures is to have a balanced, healthy diet. The good thing is that there are various kinds of foods that can help you with your asthma problem. If you want to fight asthma, then you better add these Raw Foods and drinks that help treat asthma to your daily meal:

1. Honey is one of the greatest foods that you can find out there. It contains a lot of vitamins and minerals that can help boost your health. Honey is also rich in anti-oxidants and anti-bacterial contents which help ward off those allergens that may be causing the asthma attacks.
2. Garlic, onion and ginger are common household spices which are nutritionally rich. It is widely used as an antibiotic and an anti-inflammatory agent. To reduce the occurrence of asthma attacks and other respiratory diseases, you should add garlic to your food recipes or eat it as is if you can take its raw taste.
3. Fish has plenty of natural oils such as Omega-3 fatty acids. This kind of oil is healthy and is a great anti-inflammatory agent. Consuming right amount of Omega-3 is good for the health, especially for the heart.
4. Fruits are delicious and highly nutritious. When you eat fruits, not only can you lessen asthma attacks, but you are making your body a whole lot healthier. If you are asthmatic, consider consuming lots of fruits, especially those rich in Vitamin C.
5. Green leafy vegetables can do your body good. The vitamins and minerals that you can get from eating this type of vegetable can help in regulating the flow of circulatory and respiratory systems. It also reduces inflammation caused by asthma attacks.
6. Carrots are rich in beta-carotene which is one kind of antioxidant that helps protect the body from free radicals. This beta-carotene, when converted to Vitamin A can also supply the body with benefits such as good eyesight.
7. Grains, beans and nuts contain a high magnesium levels which is a necessary element that helps lighten up asthmatic condition. So if you have asthma, maintain a high level of magnesium to help ward off severe attacks. Also remember that foods which undergo minimal process have high level of magnesium than processed foods.
8. Fresh green tea contains natural compounds that help improve different organs of the body. It works by widening the different passages in the body such as arteries, veins and even the airways. It has been widely used in calming asthma attacks.
9. Coffee can help in calming a person having an asthma attack. Although caffeine is not seen to be beneficial, it has a similar effect as the medical prescriptions taken by asthmatics.
10. Water keeps the body fluids flowing. It helps flush away dirt inside the body and lightens up mucus that block the airways. Remember to drink at least eight glasses of water every day to keep your body hydrated.

The best way to fight asthma is to keep your body at the best condition possible. If you consume these anti-asthma raw food and drinks, you can expect less asthma attacks and a more vigorous, healthier body.

Danny writes for Benefits of Honey blog and is available to write guest posts for your blog/website. When not eating lots of honey, Danny likes to write about cactus honey powder.

This is a fun and easy recipe that even toddlers can help their mothers make! The ingredients are flexible and are basic muesli ingredients that most of us have in the cupboard anyway. Different nuts and dried fruit can be used in the recipe to create different flavours, textures etc. Due to the sticky dates, the ingredients stay firmly together without crumbling.

Ingredients

½ cup (130 g) chopped dates

½ cup water

1 Tbsp walnut / hazelnut / rice bran oil

2 tsp fresh lemon juice

1 cup (100 g) finely chopped dried (moist) apricots

½ cup (100 g) almonds, chopped

½ cup (100 g) brazil nuts, chopped

½ cup (90 g) pumpkin seeds, roughly chopped

4 Tbsp (45 g) sunflower seeds

4 Tbsp buckwheat seeds, crushed

2 Tbsp goji berries

1 Tbsp finely ground flax seeds

1 Tbsp finely grated zest of mandarin / orange

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

Method

1. Place the dates, water, oil and lemon juice in a mixer and blend until smooth. This mixture will hold the ingredients together to make a batter.

2. Place the rest of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and stir to mix well.

3. Pour the date mixture into the mixing bowl and stir until mixed.

4. Place the mixture in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or in the freezer for 10 minutes to firm up a little and to give the flax seeds and buckwheat seeds the chance to form a sticky substance with the moisture in the batter.

5. Tip the batter onto a sheet of unbleached wax baking paper. With the back of a large spoon, press the mixture firmly down to a thickness of about 2 cm.

6. Take a biscuit (cookie) cutter and press shapes from the batter. Press the mixture firmly into the biscuit cutter before transferring to another sheet of baking paper (or Paraflexx sheet for the dehydrator). Carefully push the shaped biscuit free from the cutter. Continue making shapes until all the batter is used up – simply spoon the last bit of batter into the cutter, press into shape and transfer to the sheet with the other biscuits.

7. Dry the biscuits out. If you use a dehydrator, dry out for about 4 hours until the biscuits are firm but still retain the moisture from the dried fruit. If you use an oven, set the baking temperature to 40º C (104º F), and dry out for about 2 hours until firm.

Makes about 23 biscuits.

Laurinda Erasmus is a vegan chef and author of a vegan recipe book, called Benessere well-being: vegan & sugar-free eating for a healthy life-style, by Quinoa Publishing. The book has over 520 recipes, each with a colour photograph, taken by the author herself. The book won a gold medal at the Living Now Book Awards in New York, USA. She is passionate about the vast possibilities of creating plant-based meals, the increased wellness and energy through plant nutrition and making a smaller impact on our precious ecosystem. Through her book and vegan classes, she shows healthy and fun ways of how to bring more plant-based meals into one’s diet. She also travels extensively, always collecting new recipes and re-writing them as vegan dishes. She shares her tips for vegan travellers and vegan travel recipes on her blogsite http://veganwellbeing.wordpress.com and to view her book see http://www.veganwellbeing.net.

A list of the top 5 raw health foods may seem unbelievable, but there are foods that possess such strong health benefits, that they are referred to as “superfoods”.

This healthy raw food list consists of foods that have more nutrients per calorie than most other foods. They have also been shown to contain vitamins, minerals and other nutrients that prevent disease: from cancer to heart disease to arthritis, and many more. These super foods are ideal for quick and easy Raw Food Recipes. We should include these super foods as part of an all Raw Food Diet on a regular basis.

A great way to eat these raw health foods – whether you just begin a Raw Food diet or whether you are 100% raw already – is to add them to your daily smoothy. You can also add some raw honey and roll them into a raw health food bar.

If you are looking for improvement of health on a raw food diet these are the superb raw uncooked food to eat!

Top 5 Super Foods

Goji Berries

Tibetan goji berries are extremely rich in anti-oxidants which help protect the cells in our bodies from diseases like cancer. They are also an excellent source of Vitamin C and soluble fiber. They have more amino acids than bee pollen, more beta carotene than carrots, more iron than spinach and 21 trace minerals. Goji Berries contain of 13% protein! It’s been used to treat eye problems, skin rashes, allergies, insomnia, liver disease, diabetes, cervical cancer, to lower blood pressure and cholesterol. It’s a powerful anti-fungal and anti-bacterial food.

Maca powder

Maca has important nutrients like trace minerals, EFA’s, amino acids and vitamins. It increases strength, stamina, energy, libido and fertility (called “natural Viagra”). Maca balances body systems: it will raise low blood pressure and lower high blood pressure as needed. Maca boosts immunity and harmonize the overall vitality of the body.

Bee pollen

Bee pollen contain more than 96 different nutrients, including every single nutrient that you need to live. It’s made up of 40% protein. It’s a natural energizer, slows down the aging process, and lowers cholesterol levels, It reliefs discomfort from PMS, prevents prostate problems, improves sperm count, boosts the immune system, and detoxifies your body. It alleviates allergies, improves endurance, strength and mental clarity. It promotes weight loss: the rate at which your body burns fat and it reduces cravings. It regulates your mood and helps control stress in your life.

Hemp seed

Hemp is one of the purest, most complete plants on earth. It has the perfect balance of Omega 3 and 6 for sustainable human health. It’s a high quality, complete raw food protein and has a massive trace mineral content.

Wheatgrass Juice

Wheatgrass contains most of the vitamins and minerals needed for human health. It’s a whole meal and complete protein with about 30 enzymes. It has up to 70% chlorophyll (which builds the blood). It’s an excellent source of calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc. Wheatgrass cleanses the body (natural raw detoxer) and it eliminates body and breath odors. The natural value of wheatgrass juice is so high that many people do not feel the “cravings” that lead to overeating. It’s great for the skin and first and second decree burns.

Esme Stevens and Annet van Dorsser are the founders of Raw Food Europe. We want to share what we know about raw food, a healthy lifestyle and … superfoods. We create video’s, articles and audio for this purpose. Read more at http://www.theBestofRawFood.com/

You are free to use this article for your Ezine or Blog, as long as you don’t alter it, mention this Author Bio and the website http://www.theBestofRawFood.com/

Plain and simple, cooked foods have been chemically altered. Simple chemistry teaches that heating compounds to high temperatures causes chemical reactions. Well, the same is true for the cooked food you put in your body and unfortunately it means accelerated weight gain.

On the other hand, raw undamaged foods still contain the natural chemical structures that help shed excess pounds and keep them off. When proteins and sugars (present in virtually all food) are heated above 118 degrees Fahrenheit, they react chemically to form harmful compounds.

The result of broiling, steaming, roasting, toasting, or frying is the formation of heterocyclic amines or HCA’s. Over 135 scientific studies (a list of which you can find here) show that HCA’s:

• Increase stress
• Strongly stimulate appetite
• Cause drowsiness

This is why cooked meals can leave you run down, stressed out, and worst of all unsatisfied. And when you’re stressed, the body’s evolutionary reaction is to enter ‘fat storage’ mode. So you overeat because cooked foods stimulate appetite and then most of your meal ends up on your belly. Cooking also causes mutated or “trans” fatty acids to appear in foods. These unnatural formations are practically indigestible to the body and almost always stored as fat.

While cooked food contains harmful compounds that sabotage weight loss and generally make you feel lousy, raw foods are naturally abundant in the phytochemicals that “fuel” the body and promote and ideal weight. Switching from the standard American diet to a primarily raw diet means losing 1 pound a day or more. Results appear quickly and continually because of enzymes and fiber.

• Enzymes

Enzymes (which are killed by the cooking process) are the metabolic “workers” present in all living food. They aid your body in breaking down nutrient-dense raw foods into compound that are of immediate use to the body – so nothing almost nothing is stored. Your body’s recognition of the high quantity of usable vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants in raw foods signals the secretion of Leptin. This hormone makes you feel full and satisfied and tells the body that – because it is receiving ample nutrition undamaged by cooking – there is no need to store fat.

• Fiber

The high-fiber count in natural foods helps weight loss results show up fast and stay noticeable. By pushing metabolic waste products created in digestion through the digestive tract for evacuation, fiber clears the body of mucous that would normally be stored between your muscle tissue and your skin. The result is the immediate deflation of “puffiness” all over the body for a tighter look. Continual consumption of fibrous natural food stuffs helps keep the body in an alkaline state and prevents the dreaded “yoyo-ing weight” phenomenon.

When the blood is made acidic by cooked food and metabolic wastes, the body quickly reverts to storage mode in an effort to remove acid from the bloodstream and regain a natural pH (measure of acidity). Fiber moves metabolic waste out of the GI tract before it affects blood pH to prevent storage of unwanted fats. This along with regulation of blood pH by powerful alkaline minerals in Raw Foods equates to consistent weight loss and figure maintenance.

On the raw foods diet, you don’t have to worry about your weight creeping back up on you. Give your body the balanced nutrition it needs – undamaged by excessive heat – and steady slimming is easy. Natural foods keep your body in a natural healthy state without the frustration of unpredictable lose-gain patters.

Most modern dietitians are ignorant to the biological design of raw foods that helps you lose weight and keep it off. Discover the proven raw food weight loss techniques to slim down quickly and and gain boundless energy. Learn how to achieve and maintain an ideal weight easily on the natural diet for flawless figure.