Raw Foods... Step by step

Eating raw foods is the best decision you'll ever make to regain youthful health...

'With all the conflicting information on diet, what makes sense? Pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, larvicides, genetically modified organisms, chemical fertilizers, microwaves, pasteurization, homogenization, hormonally injected animals, color dyes, artificial additives, and high fructose corn syrup?

Or raw, organic, sun-ripened plant food?'

~ David Wolf

Why? How?... and When?

On a raw, living food diet, all foods consumed are in their fresh, whole, natural state.

Fresh un-cooked foods contain more nutrients, then when cooked. The body responds favorably to this enhanced nutrition. People experience wonderful results, with increased energy when they replace even a small amount of cooked and processed foods, for fresh and vibrant foods.

Within the food itself, the full component of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants are untouched.

A raw food diet, is eating foods that have not been cooked.

Most evidence suggests that foods should not be heated above 47 degrees Celsius or 118 degrees Fahrenheit, in order to retain the vitamins and enzymes, beneficial to health.

Beyond this temperature, many of the heat sensitive components begin to break down.

Light steaming degrades the food by about thirty percent. Baking at a high temperature for an hour degrades water soluble vitamins by ninety percent!

If we are eating for the purpose of nourishment, we are not getting what we should be getting, when we cook the food.

Another benefit of eating un-cooked (raw) foods is that you avoid oxidized fat. If you eat raw oils, the fats are intact. Once fats are heated, the fats oxidize. Oxidized fats form free radicals. Free radicals have been attributed to cause disease: heart disease, cancer, autoimmune deficiency, etc....

Oxidized fats create cellular damage in our system.

Couple that situation, with the fact that you aren't consuming enough antioxidants to combat the damage...

I believe that we should take all the benefits fresh foods offer, and incorporate as many as we can into our lives.

Raw Foods - Testimonials

Valya Boutenko collects testimonials from people who have experienced profound health benefits from eating a high raw diet.

Watch this amazing story of Jeramaya, Amsterdam's first raw chef (raw food cafe Amsterdam). Currently he's the cook of a new raw food restaurant on Ibiza.

Raw Foods - Small Steps

Don't drive yourself crazy and say you won't cook anything ever again... Extreme decisions create anxiety... and most often are prone to failure.

People get really excited about the diet and go to websites, read a book or take a course, they eliminate all cooked foods, but then realize that from a cultural, sociological and psychological standpoint it's a really hard thing to do... Then they go back to fast foods and binging on packages of cookies, feel bad... and go back to raw foods, and then they do a yo-yo thing back and forth.

It's better to transition slowly and do an 50-80 percent raw food diet, and eat some cooked foods that are health promoting (read about Macrobiotics) like a baked sweet potato, steamed broccoli or kale, etc...

Hurom Elite Slow Juicer

My recommendation: Get the Hurom Slow Juicer... It's a little pricey, but you won't regret it!

I've tried a lot of different juicers... this is the one... Enjoy!

If you follow that type of food plan, it leaves room for social events like parties, eating out with friends, or traveling and finding something on the menu in a restaurant... something you can eat :)

There's a huge variety of foods you can eat on a raw food diet! People often think raw, fresh foods means you're condemned to celery and carrot sticks.

You can make delicious dishes that mimic cooked foods. Many of the dishes have similar textures and uses.

When I coach people, I usually find they face two hurdles:

* The first hurdle is before they get started. Many people are afraid of deprivation. They think they're going to eat nothing but lettuce, celery and carrots all day. Once they understand, all the variety and choices they have, as well as the positive benefits... such as improved health and energy, they leap into this new lifestyle.

* Yet, once they're eating raw for a few weeks or months, they face the second hurdle. Many people haven't faced up to their food addictions and emotional attachments to foods. They start to feel deprived. Then there's the whole social aspect of eating differently from others.

So...

First, try one new thing and see how you feel. Try to eat only a raw lunch, such as a big salad. Begin gradually transitioning away from cooked foods. How do you feel?

Keep changing one thing at a time. Take it slowly. While some people do like to jump into a new diet, others find that a gradual transition works best. If it works, keep doing it.

Most importantly... Enjoy!