What is the Raw Food Diet?
A raw food diet includes fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and sprouts served cold or slightly warm but under 118 °F. Higher heat damages nutrients and enzymes which can break down into toxins that cause disease. Raw food can help you achieve optimum health, lose weight and prevent many degenerative conditions.
Raw foodism is actually not new. It can be traced back to the late 1800s, when Dr. Maximilian Bircher-Benner discovered that eating raw apples helped him cure his jaundice. He started to test the effects of raw food on human health – and the raw food diet has been evolving since then!
Typically, “live” or “raw food” is mostly organic and hasn’t been cooked, processed, microwaved, irradiated, genetically engineered or exposed to toxic chemicals, GMOs or pesticides. It includes fresh fruits, berries, vegetables, nuts, seeds and herbs in their whole, natural condition. Advocates claim that cooking over 118 °F destroys or damages most of the nutrients in your food. Since the food is then much more nutrient dense, you don’t need to eat as many calories as people need on a diet of cooked, processed and “dead” foods.
Raw foodists are usually experts at juicing, blending, dehydrating, sprouting, germinating, cutting, chopping and many other methods to prepare raw food recipes for themselves, as well as their pets.
How to Enjoy a Raw Food Diet for Optimum Health!
Here are the basics of a raw food diet in a nutshell, though simplified for fast, easy understanding. A raw foodist is someone that eats 75-100% live, nutritionally-dense organic uncooked and unprocessed food and drinks pure, live water. Enjoying delicious meals without cooking the “life” out of your food helps optimize your health by alkalizing your body. At that rate, your body can eliminate the toxins created when you cook.
When more 25% of your diet is cooked, you are eating acidic toxins faster than you can eliminate them. You then store these toxins in your fat cells, disrupting your body’s acid/alkaline balance. Acidic toxins are a major cause of excess weight and disease.
Common myths of a raw food diet are that eating raw is expensive and that it takes a lot of time to prepare. Nothing could be further from the truth! When you do it correctly, a raw food diet is one of the most convenient and economical ways you can live a long and healthy life! You see, cooking food above 118°F. is what actually causes most of the chemical changes in food associated with many health problems. Heat breaks down the food creating mutagens, carcinogens and free-radicals associated with diabetes, arthritis, heart disease and cancer – while also destroying the live enzymes we actually need.
Your Body is Meant to be Alkaline!
Your body is like an alkaline battery — running on electrons. All life-giving chemical reactions only happen when electrons or energy flows between atoms. Cooking or processing causes food to lose electrons – the source of the energy your body needs. Things that are healthy ‘contribute” electrons and are called alkalizing. Things that are unhealthy steal electrons and are called acidic or “oxidizing.” (burn up, rust or decay).
Because the pH scale is logarithmic even a fraction of a point can create huge changes to health! One hydroxyl molecule (-OH) in 550 million is enough to make water conductive. In fact, most important processes in your body only work within a very narrow pH range. For example, if the pH of your blood falls to the low end of its normal range (~7.35-7.45), a .10 difference, it could reduce the oxygen levels in your blood by as much as 300%!
What Do You Eat as a Raw Vegan?
A raw food diet means nutrient-rich plant foods that have not been heated or processed in any way. When foods are cooked or processed much of their important disease-preventing nutrients are lost. Conversely, a raw diet provides you with a greater degree of health and vitality, slows aging, and promotes healing. By making the majority of your diet healthy raw foods and avoiding unhealthy alternatives, you can improve your health and reduce your risks of suffering from a degenerative disease. Getting started with this nutritious lifestyle is easy.
How to Add Raw Foods to Your Daily Diet
I start every day by drinking with a glass of pure, high pH alkaline water and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. I make fresh alkaline water in my Life Water Ionizer. Then I make a nutrition-packed smoothie with greens like kale or spinach and some frozen organic fruit like mangoes and blueberries. I usually add some superfood powders as well.
My lunches often are just a salad with some homemade raw dressing, maybe some soaked nuts or seeds and some sprouts. When I grab s snack like to go for fresh fruit. Remember to drink some pure alkaline water between meals (I make it in my Life Water Ionizer) .
When you are first starting, pick just one or two days a week day a week to eat mostly raw foods. Once you realize see how easy it is and how great you feel that you’ll be highly motivated to do that more.
After that, do a whole week. Then go for two weeks,. Work up to a month. Remember, you are shooting for mostly raw each day — that 2 raw meals pls raw snacks and one cooked meal. Just see what works best for you. This approach makes it easier to get over your addictions to cooking. Next steps for you could be to purchase some of the equipment you may need, like a blender, juicer or dehydrator.
Can you Lose Weight on a Raw Vegan Diet?
Start a raw food diet with uncooked plant foods for most meals. Use lots of vegetables and fruits to keep your calories down. Eat all the leafy greens and cruciferous vegetables you want. Have fresh smoothies for breakfast and salads for lunch and dinner. Slowly work up to 100% raw.
Raw vegans are healthier than carnivores/omnivores. With all the problems of GMOs, processed foods, toxic additives and chemicals, most processed foods are already killing you. Many packaged foods also have dairy-derived ingredients. Then when this toxic food is cooked, 35 to 85% of nutrients are lost. So when you say a big NO to meat, dairy and other cooked or processed foods, you’re no to all the toxins that can make you sick.
When you start living a raw food lifestyle, you don’t just lose weight — you actually gain happiness, energy and stregnth. I’ve seen many people give up their cooked, processed animal products for meals loaded with phytonutrients, minerals, vitamins … and life! When you chooses living foods, you’ll just naturally let go of bad habits, bad energy, bad health and of course, all that unnecessary weight.
Suggested Raw Foods List of Staples
With a little preparation you can enjoy the benefits a raw food lifestyle all the time. To make that easy, here’s a list of the raw foods staples to stock up on:
- Fresh organic fruits like blueberries, oranges, bananas & avocados
- Fresh, organic vegetables in season
- Fresh, organic leafy greens like kale, spinach, cabbage, etc.
- Soaked & sprouted raw nuts & seeds
- Sprouted or soaked gluten-free grains like quinoa, millet & buckwheat
- Sprouted or soaked legumes, like lentils, peas, chickpeas & beans
- Foods high in probiotics like raw sauerkraut & miso
- Sunflower, sesame and pumpkin seeds
- Ripe, organic avocados
- Fresh coconut water or kefir
- Raw yogurt (non-dairy)
- Cultured vegetables like sauerkraut or kimchi
What is a raw food diet for dogs?
Raw food for dogs is also called the BARF diet {Bones And Raw Food). It’s a healthy alternative to dry or canned food. The BARF diet consists of raw meats, bones, vegetables & supplements. Raw food is the healthiest, most natural food for dogs just like it is for you!
Switching Your Dog to a Raw Diet
- Dogs need a little time to adjust to a change in their diet. Put your dogs on a brief your dog for a day prior to giving them raw food.
- If your dog is healthy, split the raw meal into two part. Give them the first around noon and the other around dinner time.
- Although not very likely, watch out for any diarrhea or vomiting. If that happens, feed smaller amounts over the next few days days to follow. If your dog does any vomiting, your dog may need extra enzymes.
- Your dog may act hungry after eating. Dogs may often tend to gorge themselves, especially if they love the food. Instead of just giving in, use your dog’s weight as a guide.
- Make sure your dog has pure, filtered water at all times.
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