Eating Raw Food

Eating raw is one of the biggest lifestyle choices anyone can make. Planning to change your diet completely is something that not all of us have the courage to do. A raw diet can seem to be an interesting idea when you are planning to start eating healthy. However, eating raw may not be the easiest thing you do. In fact, in order to eat raw, you have to first read a lot about raw diets and how you should switch over.

When we cook foods, the chemical compositions of the foods change.

The way our body processes this food also undergoes a drastic change. It is for this reason that many doctors and dieticians advice people to start slow when changing their diet. Raw food is extremely beneficial for the body, but only when it is consumed in the right manner. The benefits of eating raw can also only be realized when the process of eating it correctly is adopted.

A raw food diet essentially comprises of raw parts of a plant. For a diet to be considered raw, at least 75% of the food constituents should be consumed in their raw forms. This means that 75% of the food should be uncooked. While this may seem easy, the body can take a while to get used to the raw forms of food. In fact, to begin your raw food diet, you should ideally start consuming raw foods in small quantities. For the first few days, you can have a diet which is about 35%-40% raw, after which you can increase the amount of raw foods to 60% and eventually, 75% or more.

A lot of people get used to eating 75% raw meals. After a while, if the people begin to feel the benefits of the raw meal, they eventually move to a 100% raw diet. Raw fruits and vegetables are the easiest to eat, since we already consume many fruits and vegetables in their raw forms. Eventually, you can add seeds, nuts and cereals to the list of raw foods too.

There are many eating raw recipes and the most interesting thing is that preparing a raw meal is not very difficult. In fact, since it does not require any cooking, the preparation time is only the time that it takes to cut the raw foods. Some people may not even cut the raw foods, consuming them completely after only washing the foods thoroughly.

Sometimes, you may feel the craving for cooked foods. More often than not, this craving only picks up because you are used to cooked food and the body may sometimes crave it. It is however, all about breaking your habit. Just like breaking any addictive habit, switching to eating raw foods also takes some amount of patience and a lot of perseverance. Eventually, your body will get so accustomed to the raw foods that any craving for cooked foods will automatically stop.

It is believed that cooking foods can destroy most of the vital nutrients as well as the protein enzymes which can help the body digest foods. if you heat a food above 118 degrees Fahrenheit, it eventually destroys most of the nutrients as well as the life force that the food contains. When you eat raw foods, you will experience a burst of energy in your body. You will feel more active and experience more vigor in your body. Another great benefit of eating raw is that raw foods are rich in anti oxidants which prevent the cancerous cells from forming in the body. Raw foods are also devoid of any chemical preservatives and other additives which can cause harm to your body and your health.

Submitted on January 16, 2014