Chances are that you’ve probably heard people talk about a raw food diet and how healthy it is for you, but did you ever wonder exactly what it is they’re talking about? Perhaps you binoculars uk envisioned raw oysters and beef on your dinner table. That doesn’t sound too appealing doesn’t?

In fact, a raw food diet is simply eating food in its natural unprocessed state. You probably already are on part of a raw food diet. If you snack on fruits and vegetables without cooking them, then cot beds you’ve eaten raw food.

Raw food, or unprocessed food is much better for you because the act of processing the food strips it of a lot of its vital nutrients. You’ve probably heard that cooking vegetables can leach out a lot of the vitamins and it can also destroy the important food enzymes as well. Packaged foods, that you find in the grocery store like potato flakes to make mashed potatoes and other foods that have been processed in some sofa beds way to make an easy package meal not only have little nutritional value, but your body simply isn’t made to process these foods.

If you think about raw foods as being the natural foods the way that they come from the earth, then it makes sense that these are easier for our bodies to process as these of the foods are great ancestors ate and there really hasn’t been that many generations since grocery stores, and therefore prepackaged foods, were invented.

raw foods are packed full of vitamins, minerals and cot bed food enzymes. These food enzymes are important, although you don’t hear a lot about them. One of the things they do is help you digest your food and getting enough enzymes can help your body with the digestion process which takes a lot of energy, and if your body is spending less energy on digestion it will have more energy for you to do the things you like. Did you ever wonder why you feel so tired after you eat a big meal of cooked foods? One of the reasons is because food enzymes are destroyed by cooking, so there are no enzymes to help your body digests that big meal you just ate.

People in a raw food diet eat about 75% of their food as raw and whole foods. This includes fruits, vegetables, sprouts, raw nuts, seaweed and other foods in their natural form.

Raw foods can be prepared in a couple of ways. One of the most popular is juicing. Many people go on a juice fast where all they do is drink the juice of raw organic fruits and vegetables. Even just drinking fresh juice in the morning can give your health a boost.

Another way that people eat raw foods is to use a food dehydrator. This takes all the moisture out of the fruits and vegetables so they can be easily stored for long periods of time without going bad. A food dehydrator uses hot air to dehydrate the food but it keeps the temperature under 116°F so that the vital food enzymes are not destroyed.

Of course, you can simply eat your fruits and vegetables the way nature intended picked straight from the tree. Nuts can be a great raw food that you eat for snacks as well, but be careful because most of the nuts you find in the grocery store are cooked. You need to make sure you get raw nuts which you probably will have to buy either online or from a health food store.

You don’t have to all of a sudden start eating 75% of your foods as raw foods in order to enjoy the health benefits of the raw food diet. You can gradually increase the amount of raw foods you eat as time goes on and you will notice how much more energy you have and how healthy you feel. Remember, you are what you eat!

Lee Dobbins

http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/gaining-better-health-through-a-raw-food-diet-106764.html

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A raw food diet emphasizes only the consumption of raw food. The reason more people are beginning to pursue a raw food diet is based on the premise that cooked food losing much of its essential vitamins an minerals during the cooking process and also that cooking food destroys enzymes necessary for the proper digestion and absorption of food.

The raw food diet consists of unprocessed fresh foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains and sprouts. There are different types of raw food diets such as those based only on fruits and vegetables, fruit only or those that include raw meat or animal products such as eggs along with fruit and vegetables. The choice of diet type depends largely on personal preference.

Why is a raw food diet preferable? Many people claim that a raw food diet has several health benefits such as better digestion, more energy, less health problems, weight loss and even slowing of the aging process. A raw food diet does offer a natural alternative to traditional dietary considerations. The main concern with a raw food vegan diet is the use of pesticides. It is best to buy organic when purchasing fruits and vegetables. People often choose to grown their own which of course, is a good option.

Although a raw food diet does appear to have some health benefits as studies have shown such as lower cholesterol and may reduce the risk of conditions such as heart disease and cancer there are also other factors that should be taken into consideration. A raw food diet can create certain nutritional deficiencies such as protein, calcium and iron. A raw food diet may not provide an adequate supply of these and other necessary nutritional requirements. In addition those who eat raw meat as part of their raw food diet risk the illness through contamination by bacteria and/or parasites.

There have been many dietary claims to cure specific diseases or improve general health but it is important to consult your physician before making any changes in your regular diet especially if you have an existing health condition. People who are anemic, diabetic or have other health conditions may cause themselves unnecessary harm by completely changing their current diet. Children should not be put on a raw food diet or any other type of diet without the permission of their pediatrician. A child’s body needs certain vitamins and minerals for healthy development. Those nutrients can become deficient on certain types of diets that may negatively affect a child’s health and/or development. If the child is overweight it is best to consult with the pediatrician to develop a dietary plan that will assist the child in losing weight without jeopardizing health.

Weight loss should not be the only reason to institute a raw food diet into one’s lifestyle. The ultimate goal should be to improve overall health and well being. If you would like to embark convert to a raw food diet but are uncertain whether or not this lifestyle change would work for you it is best to make the change slowly. Start by adding more raw foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains into your diet while still maintaining your regular diet. As you increase the raw foods in your diet you can slowly decrease your old food habits. If you have any questions or concerns about the raw food diet consult with your physician or a dietician. They can help address any concerns you may have and work with you to adapt your diet to a healthier more productive way of eating to improve your health and quality of life. It is important however to keep in mind that no diet is a cure all. Changes toward developing a healthier lifestyle take time and depend on consistent efforts.

Bruno

http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/is-a-raw-food-diet-right-for-you-742111.html

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Unless you live in the middle of the jungle, you breathe only pure air, eat only organic foods when you’re hungry; and that those foods provide the exact nutritional needs of your body; that you never experience any stress, worry or anxiety and you exercise every single day… chances are that you need to detox.

Just like the dust and crud that accumulates in your house calls for a yearly house-cleaning – “toxins”, extra weight and God knows what accumulate in your body.

We all need to do a regular house-cleaning – and that means allowing your body a chance to heal itself, release the extra weight, release its toxins, and get a fresh new start.

Your body has an amazing self-healing mechanism built right in it, but in order to let it work, you have to give it the rest it needs.

That’s why fasting has been a tradition part of many world’s religions, and almost every alternative health practice recommends some kind of fasting or “detox diet”.

What Is a Detox Diet?

A “detox diet” has nothing to do with going to a rehab clinic for drug abuse. The word “detox” has been used in naturopathic circles in the sense of “removing toxins.” A detox diet allows your body to clean itself of accumulated toxins, stress, and helps it release extra fat and weight.

A detox diet is a restricted diet that you follow, often combined with an exercise program, for a few days or a few weeks (or even longer). It’s sort of like fasting, but it’s easier to do and you can do it at home when you need it.

Signs You Need to Detox

You should be able to know yourself when you need to go on a detox diet. If you’re looking at yourself in the mirror and don’t like what you see, you don’t like the extra weight you’ve been carrying around… then a detox diet can help you get back on track with a healthy diet and release the extra fat..

If you feel you don’t have the energy you once had, or you’re starting to feel a little depressed… a detox diet can help you regain that energy and bring a new level of joy to your life.

If you experience aches and pains, or headaches, and can’t keep up with the stress of modern life, then it’s very likely that a detox diet can help you feel young again, and give you the feeling that “nothing can stop you”.

From having helped thousands of people go through all sorts of detox diets, I know that the rejuvenation it brings and the sense of accomplishment, on top of all the health results, is well worth the discipline it requires to do it.

Example of a Detox Diet

There’s all sorts of detox diets you can choose from. One of my all-time favorites is the Apple Diet. This involves eating only apples for breakfast, lunch and dinner, for one or several days.

The good thing about apples is that they are easy to eat, they are low in sugar, and they contain a fiber that literally acts as a “broom” in your intestines.

When you go on an Apple Diet, all you have to do is purchase the best organic apples you can find, and eat as many as you’d like 3 or 4 times a day.

Here’s a few tips to make this work:

- If you’ve never done this before, only plan to go for the Apple Diet for a maximum of 3-4 days.

- Peel your apples beforehand. Even though the peel contains essential nutrients, it’s also impossible to digest in most cases. Since you’re going to be eating lots of apple, you don’t want to stress your digestion with too much fiber.

- Don’t drink apple juice – even if it’s freshly-pressed. That would be too much sugar, even if it’s natural. You want the natural sugar along with all of the vitamins, minerals and fiber in the *whole* apple.

- Also drink water, about one liter a day, to help eliminate the toxins.

- Instead of eating apples all day long, have 3-4 meals a day with 1-2 pounds of apples.

I recommend the Apple Diet over any other type of “mono-cleanse”, because the apple is the King of Fruits!

Other popular cleanses that I don’t recommend include the Orange Juice Fast, the Lemon Cleanse, or the Grapefruit Diet. The problem with those detox diets is that the level of acidity from these citrus fruits is too high. It can cause many problems with your gums and overall health, and many unnecessary discomforts.

That’s why low-acidity apples are a good choice to do a raw food detox diet.

Get Support and Motivation

Although the concept of a detox diet is simple, most people have a hard time implementing it because of lack of motivation.

It’s not complicated to eat only apples for 3 days, but it’s not easy either. On the first day, you’ll be craving your normal fare. By the second day, you’ll be dreaming about food. But if you stick around, after a few days, you’ll be experiencing the incredible “high”, energy and lightness of beings that fasters experience – and the results will show.

You’ll start to release weight, your hunger for natural foods will come back, you’ll have energy to start an exercise program, you’ll feel better than ever… and when you’re ready to introduce other foods into your diet, you’ll be more likely to make the right choices.

But to get to that point, make sure you get enough support and motivation. Find someone who can help you do a detox diet with you, and get as much information and support as you can to succeed on your cleanse.

Learn to use the power of DETOX in your life… and you’ll start to regain the health and energy that is your birthright.

Frederick Patenaude

http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/the-power-of-detox-how-to-achieve-your-ideal-weight-and-increase-your-energy-with-a-detox-diet-114910.html

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Much has been written and said about diets and detox, but here we are going to present a simple 24 detox diet to cleanse your system, make you feel better and revitalise you with energy, its simple and very effective.

This 24 hour detox diet can be used after a period of over-indulgence, or when you awake feeling poorly and will revitalize you quickly.

This detox diet should not to be used everyday.

24 Hour Detox Diet Basics

The basis for this detox diet is 4 glasses of ‘fresh’ pomegranate juice, slow-cooked brown rice, a high-power vegetable salad, and 200 grams of raw almonds.

The combination will give you all the vitamins and minerals you need for your day, clear your body of toxins and oxidants, and give you plenty of energy to face the world. You will also lose a minimum of 600 grams to 1 kilo depending on your height and body weight.

Detoxing to cleanse your body

The pomegranate is a very powerful (the most powerful) anti-oxidant we know of in any food.

It has been shown to reverse and even prevent some cancers and heart disease.

The almonds will supply all the calories, oils, and proteins you need, without feeling hungry.

The salads are for bulk and all the vitamins and minerals that are gained from the eating of salads and vegetables.

The brown rice is also a wonderful antioxidant, and source of many vitamins and minerals that can be readily absorbed by the body.

The rules of this detox diet are simple:

1. No coffee or tea, or any soft drink. The ONLY liquids that are allowed are the 4 glasses of pomegranate juice and much water as you can drink.

2. If you are a smoker, try to stop for the 24 hours, or if you cannot, limit the cigarettes to as few as possible, and try not to inhale, but smoke the cigarette as you would a cigar.

3. Take a hot shower or bath both in the morning and in the evening, scrubbing the skin with a brush, loofa, or special skin cloth that will stimulate good blood circulation. Also going to a sauna is a wonderful idea. Spend as much time there as possible, taking your food with you.

4. Do not cheat; follow the diet plan. Eat ONLY when you are hungry, not by the clock.

5. Exercise by any means (walking may be the best) for at least 45 minutes during the day. This is very important.

Detox diet Morning Meal

One glass of pomegranate juice, with a handful of the raw almonds. Do not overfill your stomach; when you are about 50% satisfied, stop.

Detox diet Mid-morning Snack

One bowl of the brown rice, with some natural soya sauce, and some tofu if you feel you need protein. One glass of water.

Detox diet Lunch

One glass of pomegranate juice and a mixed green salad, as much as you wish. A dressing of virgin olive oil, wine vinegar, and salt may be used.

Detox diet Mid-Day Snack

One glass of pomegranate juice, with a handful of the raw almonds. Do not overfill your stomach; when you are about 50% satisfied, stop.

Detox diet Diner

The last glass of pomegranate juice and a large bowl of brown rice.

No more food should be consumed with this detox diet.

You will have taken over 1200 calories, and a host of wholesome and healthful nutrients with this detox diet if followed exactly.

Moreover, you body will have had 24 hours to rid itself of the toxins absorbed by over-indulgence, or simply daily city life (stress, pollution and processed food products).

During the day When using this detox diet feel fantastic and alert.

We advise to not follow this detox diet more than one day weekly, as it is not effective as a general everyday diet. It is however highly effective as a quick pick me up and cleansing diet.

Sacha Tarkovsky

http://www.articlesbase.com/nutrition-articles/detox-diets-the-24-hour-detox-revitalization-diet-56149.html

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The thing with that apart from aiding with weight loss, is that this type of diet has other benefits, which include eliminating toxins from the body. Eradicating these toxins will have a beneficial effect on internal organs, improvements to your skin, anti wrinkle benefits, and giving your immune system a well needed boost.

The flipside is that some people say that a raw diet weight loss method to lose weight can be risky if you apply it for a long period. This is because you are simply having raw foods, you will not be taking a full range of vital minerals because you are not eating other foods.

In all honesty a raw diet weight loss plan is not merely a diet to lose weight, it can be considered to be seen as a detox plan. Following this sort of program is not as easy as it seems, as it means not consuming meats, cereals, potatoes, and fundamentally anything else that comes in a processed state, or has been treated with any sort of additives.

All the food that you can eat will include foods that you do not have to cook. Foods like nuts, berries raw vegetables, fresh fruit, and anything else that can be eaten without having to cook it. You also have to drink a fair amount amount of water, around 8-10 glasses daily should do it. This will keep you hydrated and ensure that toxins are flushed away.

Can you lose weight with the raw diet weight loss method? The answer is a definite yes. If you use it sparingly, and spend around a week on the diet, then you can get some good results from it. It will improve the immune system as it flushes out toxins from your digestive tract, it has a beneficial impact on your skin, and helps you to shed those pounds.

If you follow a raw diet weight loss method for a long period of time, then it could cause potential problems. Raw foods do not contain a lot of fat, and fat is vital for your body to work effectively. Nor do raw foods contain a much protein, and your body requires protein for it to function effectively.

Fundementally the choice is yours. A raw diet weight loss method has plenty of benefits if used for a short length of time. The thing to keep in mind is that it lowers your body of proteins, fats, and critical minerals. So it will not be the brightest thing to do to stretch this method out. Just use your common sense and have a couple of months between each raw diet weight loss method, and you should have no problems.

Terry Sandhu

http://www.articlesbase.com/fitness-articles/can-i-lose-weight-with-a-raw-diet-weight-loss-method-742995.html

People discover each day the benefits of raw food recipes. When switching to a raw food diet you will see improvements to your daily behavior like improved sleep, some anti-aging benefits, increased vitality and health. Owing to such advantages, the popularity of raw food diets is bound to increase, because we all want to improve the way we look and the way we feel about ourselves, don’t we?

In the beginning people didn’t cook their food and they consumed it raw. Eating like this helped them keep very healthy. Our bodies are built so that we can consume raw foods. The only thing we need to do is to rediscover the way we were in the beginning and enjoy all that nature has to give us. Consuming raw foods helps our bodies because they contain enzymes that help digestion. These enzymes are destroyed if the fruits and vegetables are cooked. Our body digests the foods through its own enzymes, but the enzymes in our body also give us energy. Therefore, when we use the enzymes in our bodies for digestion and not the ones in fruits and vegetables, it means that our energy levels and vitality are decreased.

Basic guidelines for planning your healthy raw food recipes recommend that you should include in your diet mostly fruit and vegetables, which are our most biologically conducive meals. Something that can help you in planning your raw food recipes is the categories in which fruits and vegetables are divided.

Fruits can be divided in sweet fruits (tropical fruits, persimmons, sweet grapes), acid fruits (lemons, citrus), sub-acid fruits (apples, pears, tart grapes) and fatty fruits (avocadoes, durian). Melons constitute a separate category of fruits. Some of the vegetable categories are non-starchy greens (spinach, cabbage), fruit vegetables (cucumbers, tomatoes) and root vegetables (carrots, celeriac). Another category of vegetables includes lettuce and celery. The vegetables named here can be found as items on a list of raw low carbohydrate foods. All these fruits and vegetables are the common components of raw food recipes.

Now that the categories have been established, here are some rules of combining them in order for you to avoid fermentation in the intestines, indigestion, water retention and toxicity. Sweet fruits are to be eaten with other varieties of sweet fruits only or with sub-acid fruits. Don’t eat acid fruit with anything other than celery and lettuce. Avocadoes and olives should be eaten with non-starchy vegetables. Melons should be eaten alone or not eaten at all. These are combinations that you should try. But there are a few combinations that you should try to avoid like starch and acid (tomato and potato), protein and protein (avocadoes and nuts), sweets and starch (maple syrup and rice). Think about these combinations when you are developing your own raw food recipes.

Raw food diets are not all about fruits and vegetables. Organic foods can also be included in the diet. Organic cheese is very nutritious and can be included in raw food diets because it does not involve a cooking process that destroys enzymes. You should make sure that the organic cheese you buy is organic, and not a scam. The process that is followed by farmers to obtain organic cheese consists of letting nature take its natural course, from harvesting the milk from the cows and letting it coagulate with no help from additional catalytic agents. Incredible products made from raw ingredients and that may include organic cheese can be found here, on rawbakery.com.

Amelie Mag

http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/the-basics-for-raw-food-recipes-115472.html

The reason why you should switch to raw food recipes is because it is basically a vegetarian diet that promotes eating and drinking living foods. By consuming living foods and juices, you benefit from the maximum amount of fiber that can be found in a raw product. This fiber can be lost when the food is either processed or cooked. Raw foods are metabolized easier and are not as high in calories as the products consumed when following an average diet. The basic principle of a raw food diet is heating the foods up to 1160 F or about 460 C. The reason why you should not heat them at higher temperatures is found in the enzymes that are destroyed when subjected to such temperatures. The enzymes help food digestion and food absorption and they also give the nutritional value of foods. Therefore it is in our best interests to keep them intact. In the opposite situation, we actually force our bodies to an increased amount of work and we also contribute to the diminishing of the nutritional value of our food.

Subsequently, the benefits of raw food recipes are numerous. If you have a diet consistent of at least 75% raw foods you will receive health benefits such as increased energy, improved skin appearance, better digestion, weight loss or weight gain (depending on what your body needs). Other benefits include reducing the risks of serious illnesses like heart diseases, cancer, diabetes and more.

Raw food recipes are based on components that contain little or no saturated fats. Also, they are low in sodium, but high on magnesium, potassium and fiber. You can also use raw food recipes as detoxification solutions. If you appeal to different combinations of raw, living foods and juices you may find that they are useful for colon cleansing, liver cleansing, kidney cleansing and skin cleansing.

The reasons why you should appeal to a raw food diet may vary. Depending on these reasons, you can choose what to consume in order to improve that aspect of your health you are particularly interested in. For instance, sprouted brown rice helps slow glucose absorption and improve the metabolism; cabbage supports cellular function while radish leaves act as an anti-oxidant; carrots, a great source of vitamin A, are well-known to encourage healthy eyesight, but they also support a reliable cardio-vascular system.

Some people enjoy eating cakes and sweets. If you switch to a raw food diet, you shouldn’t think that you have to stop eating desserts. In a raw food diet you can use raw honey as a sweetener. Raw honey contains traces of propolis, a substance used by bees to seal the hive and protect it from harmful microorganisms. Other substances found in raw honey, called phytonutrients, help prevent colon cancer and can also help heal internal ulcers.

If you consume honey regularly, it is known to be beneficial for the general well-being and it also helps digestion. Amazing as it sounds, raw honey has been shown to improve athletic performance, a secret that was discovered by ancient Olympians. This happens because it helps maintain balanced levels of blood sugar, which in turn helps at keeping energy levels consistent. In addition, it helps muscle recovery. Other amazing properties of raw honey include the support it gives to the immune system in warding off colds and flu. It is a healthy substitute for sugar that can even help reduce the cholesterol levels. Include it in your raw food recipes and you will get the best for your body and mind.

Amelie Mag

http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/the-benefits-of-switching-to-raw-food-recipes-115470.html

Renegade Roundtable with Dr. Jameth Sheridan. Dr. Sheridan is a naturopath and nutritional consultant. He and his wife Kim co-authored “Uncooking with Jameth and Kim” and they co-own and operate Health Force Nutritional.

Kevin: So you’ve been at this for 23 years now. What are some of the most common pitfalls you see with a raw food or vegan diet?

Jameth: I think the number one pitfall that a raw fooder suffers from is, based on my 23 years of experience in raw food with countless tens of thousands of people, is if they’re a regular person, they eat regular foods, and let’s say they’re ill and they go raw immediately and they get well, I actually think that is ultimately a mistake. Because I see people when they “fall off the wagon” so to speak, they fall off hard and they fall back to what they started from. So if I’m eating regular pizza and regular chicken and regular animal products, things like that, regular cookies, I fall off the wagon with raw, do things with family, I’ll just go ahead and eat those and then, you know, “When I do that, and finish with my binge, then I’ll just go back to being raw.” And, I see a lot of people leaving raw foods or just being less healthy by going back and forth between those things. Because in raw the emphasis is so hard, and this is how I was taught too, on raw, that it forgets all the other things that are important, that make a raw food diet successful. And the number one thing that makes a raw food diet successful – all of a sudden, you are a whole food vegan.

If you become vegan, all of a sudden, if you stop eating animal products, cooked or raw – which are not good for you, you had an immense increase in your health. Your likelihood to get osteoporosis has plummeted; your likelihood to get cancer has plummeted; and as a whole food vegan, your likelihood to get heart disease is almost non-existent.

Now whole food meaning, you’re not just eating white sugar, white flour, and hydrogenated oil – all of which are vegan, but all of which are absolutely abysmal for you. A whole food vegan would eat things like millet, amaranth, quinoa, chick peas, you know, grains, beans, legumes, fruits, vegetables – actual food, unadulterated by nature. You’re also eating an organic diet, when you tend to go raw, and organic is huge. These things are just additives, and you don’t just eat a whole food, organic, vegan diet, you also change completely the types of foods you’re eating. For example, you don’t go from eating, let’s say a frozen vegan pizza, cooked, to a raw frozen vegan pizza. You change your food completely. You go from eating, let’s say a frozen vegan pizza, or a regular pizza, to broccoli, and cauliflower, and fruits, and sprouts, and flaxseeds, and actual foods that are completely different types of foods. So the amount of nutrients you are getting by being a raw fooder, unless you’re fruitarian, is dramatically higher. You’re also usually consuming more water, unless you’re doing lots of dehydrated things, or lots of cacao, you’re more hydrated, which is immensely beneficial. Some diets include lots of raw vegetable juice, which is tremendously beneficial. And, you are also eating a lot of your food raw, which there is a benefit to actually having things raw too, but it’s just one of the many benefits.

In raw food teaching, there is often taught, usually taught, that there’s two categories of food: foods that are raw, and foods that are cooked, and there is nothing in between. So if you’re eating something cooked, well it might as well be cheese lasagna, rather than tofu lasagna, because in the raw food world, there’s really no difference. And I’ve seen that information devastate peoples health, and I seen it have people leave the raw foods movement who would be having, let’s say, 80, 90% of their health has improved, and like “Wow, I love this.” And maybe 10 or 20% hasn’t, or 10 or 20% may have gotten worse, for some reason, some deficiency cropped up somewhere. And, if they usually talk to the raw food leaders or look at raw food text, they say, “Well, there’s a problem with you, you’re cleansing, you’re this, you’re that, blah blah blah blah. You’ve got to stay raw, because all cooked food is poison.” Even the, you know, sometimes even with macrobiotic diets, which the healing macrobiotic diet is an all-cooked food, vegan diet, there are many people who have overcome cancer with that. Now you can’t overcome cancer on poison, and by no means am I an advocate of macrobiotics, by any stretch of the imagination, because I think macrobiotics is very depleting long term but far better than the standard American diet.

So I think it’s important to be a whole food vegan at some point, and get a good basis of that. And if raw foods is not working for some reason, don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.

Kevin: So some of the deficiencies that you encounter, with raw food are, maybe…

Jameth: I’m not saying they’re widespread, I just want to make sure it’s clear. I’ve met 20 plus year raw fooders who, for the most part, were following that regime, and who appear to be vibrantly healthy and they’re in excellent health, and I have no interest in trying to change their diet whatsoever. I just want them to live optimally and have the creatures of the planet live optimally and the planet as well. But for those who do, there’s some – there’s a group of raw fooders – I don’t know how to necessarily define the types yet – but it might be, people who tend to be vata, it is, in my experience, don’t necessarily thrive on 100% raw foods. And it could be that there’s possibly deficiencies of a type of protein, because it’s not a deficiency of protein, because on raw foods, if you eat an appropriate amount of nuts and seeds – and I think you can eat way too much of those – but an appropriate amount, let’s say, one handful or so, you can get tons of protein doing that. But there’s some vata types, with my experience, take a long time to recover from working out, and it has a much harder time building muscle, just on nut and seed protein. And you can’t really eat enough broccoli, because broccoli has, I think 20 or 30% – protein, very high. But to get that much grams of protein from broccoli, it’s virtually impossible. To eat that many calories, you would actually have to juice a couple of cases of stalks of broccoli to get sufficient protein – and you would get sufficient protein in that case. But broccoli’s also a cruciferous vegetable, and I love cruciferous vegetables for the liver detoxifying, for their anti-cancer benefits and they have some hormone balancing benefits too. They’re phenomenal foods. But raw broccoli, or any raw cruciferous in a large quantity, is really, really hard to process. It’s hard to deal with. So in cases like that, I’ve seen, if people move over to the legume family, it does not have to be soy beans. Soy beans are one of hundreds of different legumes. If you don’t like soy beans for some reason, just don’t eat them – not necessary. Lentils, chick peas, mung beans, adzuki beans, things like that. Now you can certainly do those raw, but it’s ironic that one of the reasons that soy is indicted amongst the raw foods communities is because research on raw soy shows that it is very difficult to digest. It has enzyme and protein and other inhibitors in it that make it hard to deal with and hard to grow on, but that’s when the soy beans are raw. Now when you sprout any legume, any legume sprouted still has a lot of these anti-nutrients in them and it’s harder to digest and get everything out of a raw legume sprout. Now it’s almost ironic though, when you steam those legumes you do destroy all those enzyme inhibitors and the enzymes as well. But at least you’re enzymatically neutral now. You have not cooked it, or charred it, or burned it so there’s no lucocytosis raising of the white blood cell count, with steamed legumes or any steamed vegetable. For those people who don’t thrive on raw, if they do that, sprouted and steamed legumes, not lightly steamed you’ve got to steam it the whole way. Raw is just hard to digest. Most people don’t even make raw hummus anymore with raw chick peas. Have you noticed that?

Kevin: Yes.

Jameth: Because they are notoriously difficult to digest raw. I’ve made lots of raw chick pea in my day, lots of raw sprouted things and always the thing I used to do and still do is the stuff that’s left over, a dip or pate or something, well you throw it in the dehydrator and make raw chick pea burgers and eat them the next day for dinner. I did that one time and I ate the things in the morning, the raw chick pea hummus we had the day before, a whole bunch of them, I brought them to my seminar and man, I had a hard time even being in the seminar because I had so much volume of gas, that smelled so bad and I was in so much pain that I couldn’t actually socially be in the actual building. I had to walk outside.

Kevin: Wow.

Jameth: Now that was because I had a concentrated, dehydrated version. Now if you sprout chick peas, and chick peas can be hard to sprout. Sometimes they just go bad before they sprout. Now I don’t mean soak. So actually sprouted chick peas that are steamed then mixed with raw tahini, no reason in any way shape or form to cook your tahini, is phenomenally digestible. Really, really awesomely digestible and to get back, if you sprout your legumes, steam them and put a little bit of flax oil on them and salt them whether it be Himalayan salt, Celtic sea salt, a little bit of gluten free tamari or miso, some sort of good quality source of organic sodium, in my experience I have never seen that not take away someone’s craving or desire for flesh. That is so much better for you nutritionally than eating a piece of flesh, raw or not. By any measurement that science has currently come up including [indecipherable] photography, it’s far superior to do that than it is to eat raw flesh. So what I’m saying is rather than throwing the baby out with the bath water and being 100% raw, if you’re eating an animal product because you’re better off not. You’re better off eating a whole food vegan cooked food like sprouted, steamed, salted, flax oil, legume that I talked about. That’s my experience.

Kevin Gianni

http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/the-pitfalls-of-a-raw-food-or-vegan-diet-681939.html

A raw food diet means consuming food in its natural, unprocessed form. There are several common-sense rationales for why this is a good idea. Processing and cooking food can take so much of the basic nutritional value away. Think of some of the conventional wisdom you’ve heard about for years, such as: If you cook pasta just to the al dente (or medium) stage, it will have more calories, yes, but it will have more the nutritional value in it than if you cooked it to a well-done stage. Or you probably remember hearing not to peel carrots or potatoes too deeply, because most of the nutrients and values are just under the surface.

The raw food diet means eating unprocessed, uncooked, organic, whole foods, such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, dried fruits, seaweeds, etc. It means a diet that is at least 75% uncooked! Cooking takes out flavor and nutrition from vegetables and fruits. A raw food diet means eating more the way our ancient ancestors did. Our healthier, more fit ancestors. They cooked very little, and certainly didn’t cook or process fruits and vegetables. They ate them RAW. Their water wasn’t from a tap; it was natural, spring water. Maybe they drank some coconut milk on occasion.

Doesn’t it just make sense that this is how our bodies were meant to eat? It’s a way of eating that’s in harmony with the planet and in harmony with our own metabolisms. Our bodies were meant to work, and need to work to be efficient. That means exercise, certainly, but it also means eating natural, raw foods that require more energy to digest them.

Why The Raw Food Diet

Because cooking takes so many nutrients and vitamins OUT of food, you automatically start feeding your body what it needs when you stop cooking food and start eating uncooked, nutrient-rich foods. A raw carrot has exponentially more nutrition than a cooked carrot.

Cooking also alters the chemistry of foods, often making them harder to digest. Why do we have so many digestive problems in this country? Because we’re putting foods into our bodies in a form that we weren’t designed to absorb. High fiber, high water content fresh produce abolishes constipation of the bowels, cells and circulatory system. Obstructions are cleared and blood flow increases to each and every cell in the body. Enhanced blood flow is significant for two reasons: as mentioned above, blood delivers nutrients and oxygen to living cells, and carries away their toxic metabolites.

Obesity is endemic in this country. The diet industry is more profitable than the oil companies. Why? Because the way we eat and prepare our food practically guarantees that we’ll overeat. Psychologists tell us that we overeat because our souls are hungry. But in reality, our bodies are hungry, even though we may feel full. When you start giving your body the nutrients it craves, overeating will cease.

Eating raw foods is a boost to your metabolism as well. It takes a little more energy to digest raw foods, but it’s a healthy process. Rather than spending energy to rid itself of toxins produced by cooking food, the body uses its energy to feed every cell, sending vitamins, fluids, enzymes and oxygen to make your body the efficient machine it was intended to be.

You’ll naturally stop overeating, because your body and brain will no longer be starving for the nutrients they need. A starving brain will trigger the thoughts that make you overeat. The brain and the rest of your body don’t need quantity; they need quality.

Gaetane Ross

http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/the-raw-food-diet-what-is-it-107496.html