Raw Foods are a Healthy Choice for Life

Raw foods offer the perfect and complementary combination of all the nutrients essential for maximum vitality, both of the body as a whole and on a cellular level. Most parents strive to include fruits and veges into their families diets, but many do not understand the importance of consuming uncooked life giving plants and nuts.

What is raw?

Raw foods are not just salads and fresh fruit. It includes a wide variety of plant ingredients such as fruits, nuts, seeds, land and sea vegetables, roots, sprouted grains, pulses and legumes heated to no more than 44 degrees Celsius. At this temp the enzymes start to be denatured.

Raw foods increase the micro-electrical potentials of cells, improving your body’s use of oxygen so that both muscles and brain are energised. It helps you eliminate stored wastes and toxins which interfere with the proper functioning of cells and organs and lower your energy levels.

In simple terms it can assist in a speedier path to weight loss, an increase in energy and attention spans and an evening out of hormonal and sugar levels in the body — simply by allowing the body to do what it is meant to be doing with out having to break down the toxic levels of processed foods and chemicals found in our “normal” Western diet.

Oh and have I mentioned — its really quick and makes little mess or fuss? PERFECT for a busy family who is time poor.

Why raw?

Cooking food destroys at least 85% of all its nutrients. An example is that while cooked tomatoes are higher in lycopene than raw (by around 18%) the same cooked tomato (by the same USDA figures) loses nearly half of it’s vitamin A, 65% of vitamin K, 35% of beta carotene and a whopping 100% of it’s alpha carotene. That’s just on the nutrients measured!

It has been found that your white blood cells double and even triple after eating a meal of cooked food.  White blood cells are the first line of defence in our immune system and as cooking food generates mutagens and carcinogens (poisons and toxins) in our bodies. Eating raw foods leaves your white blood cells free for other tasks and saves the body the effort of a defensive action, thereby strengthening its resistance to disease.

I don’t want to just eat salad!

The whole thing about taking on a raw food lifestyle is to INCLUDE, rather than EXCLUDE foods in your diet. Other than the hundreds of combinations of salads and wondrous dressings, you may dehydrate foods, blend and juice to offer variety.

Dehydrating will allow you to massively expand the range of foods you and your family eat. You can dehydrate fruits and vegetables for later use, make bread, crackers, fruit rollups, cookies, biscuits, potato chips, corn chips, cereal, vegetable stock, cakes and more. Never waste produce in your fridge again!

A normal day for me.

Imagine your day starting with a pina colada, nibbling on a variety of dried fruit and nuts, feasting on a sumptuous tomato salad, dipping healthy vege crackers into a guacamole bursting with flavour, your mouth loving you for the pad thai you are having for dinner and finishing off with chocolate dipped banana and melon pieces and sitting infront of a good movie popping chunks of chocolate fudge in my mouth — all guilt free? That describes a normal day for me and believe me I am not missing out on great food.

Try juicing and green smoothies.

Raw juice is the most perfect fuel for your body. Its high water content means that its easily assimilated and tends to cleanse and nurture the body while supplying it with a full range of essential nutrients. Freshly extracted juices — rather than the dead ones from bottles at the supermarket, are bursting with Lifepower — a natural raw energy that is miraculous in its beneficial effect on the human body. It’s important to use a juicer that has an ultra low revolutions per minute (rpm), approx 70-80 rpm to preserve the maximum amount of nutrients and living enzymes. The living enzymes extracted from your fruit and vegetable will aid the digestive system, help your body absorb nutrients faster and more efficiently and boost your energy levels.

Green smoothies are a combination of greens (most Chinese greens, celery, lettuces, spinach, green herbs, kale, etc.) and berries, fruit pieces and ice blended in a high speed blender to produce a thick nutritious drink bursting with nutrients, fiber and goodness.

Do I have to be 100% raw?

This is a personal journey and one that only you and your family can take. It does take discipline and a clear identity, with specific goals in mind to make this transition. The other thing is that no one is 100% anything. Life is about choices and inclusion. One would be hard pressed in finding someone who ate 100% meat in their diet for example. Obviously, the higher percentage of raw foods in your family diets the more health and lifestyle benefits you are likely to experience.

What about protein?

A common objection to including more fresh fruits and vegetables in a diet is the sourcing of protein. As most vegetarians can tell you, there is more protein in a head of broccoli than there is in a steak…and its more bio-available for your body to use. Regardless of your thoughts on the consumption of animal products, the health benefits of eating organic life giving foods far outweighs the often chemical laden animal product path.

Again, you will never waste produce in your fridge once you have a juicer and a dehydrator! Your body will love you for the detoxifying effects a raw diet will give it, allowing healing to take place at a quicker pace, you will have more energy and less likey to have rapid mood swings or sugar level plunges during the day.

This forms part one of a series of articles focusing on raw foods and health. Follow a families journey into raw foods with well tested recipes and photos.

References

Green for Life – Victoria Boutenko
Leslie Kenton – The Raw Energy Bible
Beth Montgomery  – Transitioning to Health – a Step by Step guide
Beth Montgomery -  Introducing Living Foods to your Child a guide book for Babies through two years.
Piers and Sheryl Duruz  – Raw Pleasure 

Annie is a freelance writer and describes herself as a Thaumaturg (what mother isn’t?). You can catch her growing amount of websites and blogs here.

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3. 10 Foods To Include In Your Diet
4. Choosing the Best Foods for Your Children
5. Healthy Eating on a Budget