The Deal with Raw Food

‘Raw food’ simply means fruits, vegetables, seeds and nuts in their natural state, the way nature intended for you to enjoy them. Raw food is increasingly relevant, as people are consuming less and less fresh foods and turning instead to processed, microwaved, fried and pre-packaged food.

People sometimes tell me that they think raw food or raw foodism is an extreme or ‘hippy’ ways of eating. Some even think it’s a kind of religion. Of course, it is nothing of the sort and I certainly do not insist that you be 100% raw foodist. I sometimes eat cooked food, thought it no longer tastes as good to me as fresh, natural ingredients that burst with flavor.

When preparing raw foods, nothing is heated above the temperature where enzymes — the life force of a food – die (118 degrees F). Enzymes keep the food ‘alive’ by helping to break it down your digestion. If you eat an organic apple, for example, the intact enzymes will help break down the apple in your body, helping you to absorb its nutrients.

Raw food — LIFE food — is very healing:

• It will give you more energy;
• It can be completely utilized by the body;
• Its intact vitamins and proteins can help build beautiful new skin cells;
• It does not cause toxins to accumulate in the body;
• It practically digests itself,
• It can clean your liver by reducing the deluge of toxins from cooked foods, which results in cleaner blood.

Now, consider how COOKING your food could seem extreme:

Eating a diet high in cooked, dead foods decreases your vitality and can be a major cause of visible ageing. Lets say you cook that apple. The heat kills the apple’s enzymes, forcing your body to use its own enzymes to break down the food and taking a precious resource away from your blood, bone, or body tissue. Cooking also denatures proteins, making food more difficult for the body to assimilate. This leaves residue and toxins in the blood and along the digestive tract. It should be no wonder why you probably feel a little tired after eating a heavy, cooked meal – your own energy has been depleted to digest the food.

Worse, cooking food at high temperatures can also destroy up to 99% of its vitamins. The last time you ate spinach, did you eat it as a salad, rich in digesting enzymes, or sautéed, where at least 80% of its vitamins were gone??

You don’t have to eat all raw food, but everyone would benefit from eating 1 or 2 raw or mostly raw meals a day. I made the change and it has changed my life for the better.