Review of a Raw Food Diet

With obesity, diabetes and heart disease rising in the United States, let us consider a raw food diet review. It is important for each of us to evaluate the role that food plays in our daily lives. What kind of toxins are we consuming? Are we getting enough nutrients? Does our body have enough energy to get us through the day? Eating raw can help answer these questions and more.
How Raw Foods Heal Our Body
Food is nothing more than fuel for our bodies. Many of us elevate food to a place of emotional significance. Though sharing a meal can certainly provide a stimulating social experience, ultimately food is nothing more than how we keep our bodies running smoothly and effectively. So, what does it mean if we fill our bodies with the wrong kind of fuel? What if the fuel we put in our bodies is actually harmful or toxic? Then, the system begins to breakdown and our bodies begin to show signs of disease.
This diet review will show us that by going back to basics, by filling our bodies with the kinds of food it has relied on for thousands of years, we can reduce disease, lose weight, increase energy and overcome a reliance on toxic foods that only serve to make our bodies sick.
Specific Nutritional Requirements
From a biological standpoint, our body is made up of billions of cells. Each cell has a unique function and relies on specific nutritional elements for maximum efficiency. These foods, especially organic fruits, are full of beneficial enzymes, proteins, amino acids, vitamins and minerals; precisely the nutrients that our cells need for healthy function.
When food is cooked, the nutrients are broken down at an alarming rate. The use of high-heat cooking methods not only destroys enzymes, vitamins and minerals, but it can also lead to increased carcinogens and toxins in an otherwise healthy food.
You will find that almost any popular health journal has conducted a raw food diet review in response to the growing epidemic of poor health and increased disease in our society. Research consistently shows that consuming large amounts of these fruits can reduce your risk for cancer, heart disease, obesity and reduce the severity of symptoms for diseases such as arthritis and fibromyalgia.
The best rule of thumb for a raw diet is the 80-10-10 rule: at least 80% of the diet is fruit with no more than 10% being protein or 10% fat.
Eating a diet rich in natural, raw foods, along with a modest amount of raw seeds and nuts, is like giving our body exactly what it needs for optimal function and efficiency. If the cells in our body are happy, we feel good, our mood improves and our energy increases.
How to Adopt a Raw Food Diet
If your health is important to you and you have done a raw food diet review and researched the benefits of eating raw, then incorporating raw eating habits into your lifestyle is the next step towards optimum well being.
But how do you get started? First, start by incorporating more organic fruit into your daily routine. Go out on a limb and try a few new varieties you have never had before. The more varied your diet, the more creative you can be with your meal planning down the road.
A healthy raw food diet should make you feel stronger and more energetic within a few weeks. Many people start their raw food journey with a detoxification period in order to purge all of the toxins from their body for a fresh start. If you still have questions or if you would like to continue to learn more about the raw food lifestyle as your move forward, consider purchasing a few raw food diet books and find online resources and support forums that allow you to connect with other raw food lovers.
Once you have an understanding of the basics of a raw food diet, you can move to eating one raw meal each day. As raw fruits and vegetables become a larger part of your daily routine, you will find it easy to expand your recipes and techniques to include countless alternatives for some of your favorite dishes.
Health For Life
With a little additional planning and know-how, anyone can adopt a healthy raw food diet. Though adopting the diet is simple enough, it is important to pay close attention to your calcium, iron and vitamin B-12 intake to avoid deficiencies. Variety is the key to a nutritious and healthy diet, so diversify your fruits and learn how to sprout grains and legumes for additional nutritional supplements.
Even if you do not adopt entirely this diet, simply replacing a meal or two per day with these foods can have tremendous health benefits and reduce toxins in your body. It is important to stay on top of the latest news and research, so you should consider subscribing to health journals or medical blogs that will provide regular raw food diet review details and studies.
Your body is a fragile and precious thing. Nothing is more important to it than healthy and nutrient-rich fuel. If you reduce or remove food toxins, avoid processed foods and eat raw, your body, health and life will be healthier and happier than ever before.

You've heard the buzz. The raw food diet is gaining momentum! The audience for the raw food books is expanding at a very fast pace. This is because the Baby Boomer generation, many of whom refuse to grow old, is looking for answers. Another reason is that the rising cost of health care (as well as the disappointing side effects of drugs and surgery) is creating a consciousness in people that they need to take responsibility for their health and not hire someone else to be in charge of their body's fate.
The word is getting out---the raw diet is not just another weight loss fad. This is the natural diet and people on this diet have reversed cancer, heart disease, hepatitis, and other major diseases-as well as minor nuisances such as herpes, athlete's foot, dandruff, and even sleepwalking.
The younger generation has also caught on to this diet. Most of them have come from the vegan population. These are ardently opposed to the eating of any animal products. Many feel the next step for them is to "go raw." Many of them view this diet as a spiritual practice, since the energy normally used to digest cooked food is freed up to go to the higher centers.
Then there are the women who also get hooked into this diet for beauty. Model Carol Alt is the ultimate example, and she showed the power of a raw diet to create a beautiful body and maintain youth by posing nude in December 2008's Playboy magazine. Women love this diet for weight loss and maintenance, soft and radiant skin, loss of cellulite, full hair (sometimes even reversing the gray!), and more.
The word is also getting out that the raw diet helps with athletic performance, getting the competitive edge at work, mental health (being freed from depression, schizophrenia, and more), and creativity.
But what does this strange diet consist of? Are all these raw fooders eating salads and munching on carrots and bananas all day? How could that possibly provide enough calories and variety to sustain people for the long run?
A typical raw food vegan diet consists of unheated (not above 118 F) fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and sprouted grains and lentils. From this seemingly limited fare, however, one can create a wide variety of dishes, ranging from the "fast food" smoothies and salads to the gourmet imitations of cooked food dishes. Most raw fooders eat this way. They expand the variety of plant food they consume, eating a wide variety of olives, or exotic fruit, for example.
A raw vegetarian might also include raw egg yolks (providing they are from an organic, preferably flax
seed-fed, free range chicken) as well as some raw dairy such as kiefer (available in raw dairy states like California; otherwise you have to buy from the Amish or own part of a cow or goat).
There are also those who eat raw meat, such as steak tartar, ceviche, and sashimi. Marinating it overnight in lemon juice it is supposed to kill the parasites.
Omitting cooked food might seem like a huge sacrifice, but raw fooders don't feel deprived once they have weaned themselves from addictive processed food, filled with sugar, wheat, dairy, monosodium glutamate, table salt, aspartame and intense spices, all of which serve to hook the consumer into food addiction. Raw food actually tastes better than cooked food, because the flavor isn't cooked out into the air. You just don't need to add all those spices and toxic ingredients.
It is easy to make a raw, whole food recipe which most of us are very familiar with: guacamole is an example---just make it from whole foods instead of a mix! Or make trail mix from raw shredded coconut, nuts, seeds, and sundried raisons and apricots.
Many people who go raw use raw gourmet recipes that mimic their favorite cooked dishes until they are used to eating raw, after which they boast spending no more than 10 minutes a day in the kitchen. The raw gourmet dishes often require expensive machines, such as a Vitamix and a temperature-controlled dehydrator, but you can do a lot with just a blender and a food processor.
Here are a few gourmet raw recipes from The Live Food Factor, A Comprehensive Guide to the Ultimate Diet for Body, Mind, Spirit & Planet:
Sunflower Seed Pâté
1 cup sunflower seeds, soaked overnight, rinsed
1 cup pumpkin seeds, soaked overnight, rinsed
½ cup pitted olives
2 red bell peppers
½ bunch cilantro or favorite fresh herb
1 t Celtic or Himalayan salt
½-1 cup sun-dried tomatoes, soaked for 30 minutes and cut into small pieces with scissors
Put the seeds through a blank screen of a juicer. If you don't have a juicer with a blank screen, you can use a food processor with the "S" blade to blend them, but it won't be as creamy. Then, mix all other ingredients in the food processor with the "S" blade.
Raw Candy
Nuts, soaked 6-12 hours, rinsed and drained
Dates
Raw carob powder, to taste (optional)
Raw shredded coconut or unhulled sesame seeds
Mix nuts, dates and carob in food processor. Mix in a food processor with the "S" blade until the mixture forms a ball that bounces around inside that machine. Remove and form little balls. Roll the balls in sesame seeds and/or raw shredded coconut. These keep a long time in the freezer. Experiment with ingredient proportions and quantities to suit your own taste.
Deluxe Macadamia Nut Cheese
12 oz (3 cups) macadamia nuts, soaked 6-12 hours, rinsed and drained
1 t Celtic sea salt
2 cloves garlic
1 T fresh cilantro
¼ cup lemon juice
3/8-½ cup unpasteurized olive oil
Blend in food processor with the "S" blade, adding the nuts a little at a time. Mix until creamy, the texture of cream cheese.
Note: For a creamier mixture, you could put the nuts through a juicer with the blank screen before putting them into the food processor. In that case, you will need about half the olive oil! You might have to add one or two tablespoons more of oil.
Blend until it has the creamy texture of cream cheese. Serve on flax crackers, or use as a vegetable dip with zucchini, baby carrots, sliced bell peppers, fresh broccoli and so on.
Tahini Sauce
1 cup raw tahini
¾ cup unpasteurized olive oil
2/3 cup orange juice (about 2 medium-sized oranges)
3 cloves garlic
1½ inches fresh ginger
1 T nama shoyu (optional)
1-2 t Celtic sea salt
¼ cup fresh cilantro (optional)
Mix in food processor with the "S" blade, adding ingredients a little at a time. Mix until creamy. This is great on raw Oriental vegetables for a stir-fry or on Nori Rolls.
Chinese Stir "Fry"
1 foot long daikon radish
4 carrots
1 bunch green onions
5-6 stalks celery
½ head small cabbage
2 zucchinis
1 red bell pepper
1 cup mung bean sprouts
¾ cup watercress
3 stalks broccoli
1½ cups snow peas
Slivered raw almonds or raw cashews
Sesame seeds
Tahini sauce (see "Sauces, Salad Dressings, Condiments")
Tempeh (optional)
With the food processor, grate the daikon radish, and slice the carrots, celery, green onions, cabbage, zucchinis and bell pepper. (This is one time you will be especially thankful for your food processor: A job that could otherwise take an hour will be finished in minutes!) Put into a large bowl. Cut off florets from broccoli and toss into the mixture. Chop off tips of watercress and toss in, along with mung bean sprouts. Cut off stringy ends of snow peas and toss in. Fold in about a cup of tahini sauce. Top off with almond slivers (or truly raw cashews, sliced) and sesame seeds. Chop up tempeh and fold into mixture.
Serves 8-10.
Raw Hummus
2 zucchinis
¾ cup unhulled sesame seeds, soaked 6-12 hours, rinsed, drained
¾ cup raw tahini
¼-½ t cayenne
½ t celery salt
3-4 garlic cloves
1 t Celtic sea salt
¼ cup lemon juice
Blend in a food processor with the "S" blade, adding ingredients a little at a time until creamy. Serve on flax crackers or use as a vegetable dip with sliced zucchini, baby carrots, sliced bell peppers and fresh broccoli.
With a bit of effort, it is easy to transition to a mainly raw diet. After a year or so, most are satisfied with eating simply. Nothing could be tastier than Nature's fast food, after all!