The Raw Food Diet and Lifestyle

Until just a few years ago, the raw food diet was still so abstract that most people probably hadn't heard about it. Nowadays, the term "raw" is popping up everywhere. Have you ever wondered what it meant, and/or why people would want to eat that way?
 
The raw food diet consists of unprocessed and uncooked plant foods, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, sprouts, seeds, nuts, grains, beans, nuts, dried fruit and seaweed. The diet includes foods in their unprocessed and uncooked state and omits most other foods. Most people include a limited amount of foods that have undergone some processing, as long as the processing does not involve heating the food over 115-118 degrees Fahrenheit. The most popular raw food diet is a raw vegan diet, but other forms include raw animal products and/or meat. Some people, like myself, aren't fully raw vegan but try to incorporate raw recipes and dishes into their daily eating plan.

There are specific food preparation techniques used to make foods more digestible and add variety to the diet, these include, sprouting seeds, grains, and beans, juicing fruits and vegetables, soaking nuts and dried fruit, and dehydrating food. Incorporating plant-based raw proteins from nuts, hemp, greens and other sources are also critical to the raw food lifestyle.

Raw food followers believe that heating food above 115-118 degrees Fahrenheit can destroy enzymes in food that can assist in the digestion and absorption of food. They believe that foods cooked above this temperature have lost a significant amount of their nutritional value and are harmful to the body, whereas uncooked foods provide living enzymes and proper nutrition. Benefits of the raw food diet include preventing degenerative diseases, slowing the effects of aging, providing enhanced energy, boosting emotional balance and improving overall health.

So, is it true? There's still some debate, however, most health & wellness experts agree that adding more raw foods into your everyday eating plan is a must. On a personal note - the people that I've personally met that adhere to a mostly raw way of eating have few health issues, never get ill, have tons of energy and look about 10-15 years younger than they actually are. :)

Here is a link to a FREE e-book from Natalia Rose: Click here to download Life Force Energy Children - the book is labeled as a Children's food book, but has fantastic information and recipes for everyone. And it's free :) It's a great place to start if you are new to raw food.

More Raw Food Books:

• Living Raw Food By Sarma Melngailis (My personal favorite.)
• Raw Food/Real World By Matthew Kenney and Sarma Melngailis
• Green for Life By Victoria Boutenko
• Thrive By Brendan Brazier (Not completely raw but contains loads of information on veganism - Brazier is a vegan Ironman triathlete.)
• Eating in the Raw By Carol Alt 
• Raw Food Life Force Energy By Natalia Rose
• Ani's Raw Food Essentials By Ani Phyo

More resources on the raw food lifestyle:

• http://altmedicine.about.com/od/popularhealthdiets/a/Raw_Food.htm
• http://vegetarian.about.com/od/vegetarianlifestyle/f/rawfoods.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raw_foodism
• http://www.living-foods.com/faq.html
• http://rawpaleodiet.vpinf.com/rvaf-overview.html