The raw food diet (often referred to as “raw foodism” or “rawism”) has been around for many years, but it continues to become increasingly popular. People who follow this diet are steadfast in their claims that this way of eating leads to optimal health. All of these claims may have left you wondering: what is the raw food diet?

People who practice this type of diet are known as “raw foodists”. Raw foodists claim that the diet promotes many health benefits including: better general health, lower disease risks, greater energy, losing tummy fat, blemish free skin, and a lean physique. However, they believe the diet must be strictly followed to obtain those kind of results. Only eating unprocessed and uncooked foods, in their most natural state, is the main key to following this diet. Undertaking this diet takes a good deal of dedication and time. Raw foodists must be able to devote many hours of their day to preparing food by peeling, chopping, blending, pureeing, and dehydrating in order to create their nutritional recipes.

Fruits and vegetables make up most of the diet and account for about seventy-five percent of it. The remaining twenty-five percent of the diet can be made up of beans, nuts, grains, seaweed, and sprouts. While some cheeses made from raw milk or raw eggs are allowed on the diet, most animal products are not. Prohibited items include all refined products, refined sugar, caffeine, and alcohol.

On the raw food diet, food is not cooked or prepared in a traditional way. Stoves and ovens are not used; instead a food dehydrator is the main cooking device. No more than 115 to 118 degrees of heat is used by the dehydrator to dry food. Raw foodists believe enzymes and vitamins necessary for digestion are destroyed when food is heated above 118 degrees.

There are several studies being designed to back up the claims of the raw food diet, although one early study found that consuming cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, kale and Brussels sprouts may lower the risk of developing certain types of cancer. Cruciferous vegetables contain isothicyanates, which have been scientifically shown to alter the protein in cancer cells. Cooking vegetables reduces the concentration of isothicyanates, which reduces the health benefits. A second study on the raw food diet found that oral, gastric, pharyngeal, esophageal, and laryngeal cancer risk may be reduced by eating raw vegetables regularly. Further studies have shown that a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, as well as those that are vegan or vegetarian may lower cholesterol levels, and regulate blood glucose levels.

Remember a physician should always be consulted before starting any new diet. You should make sure the diet is safe and will meet all of your health needs. The raw food diet is not suitable for children or infants as it does not provide enough nutrition for development and growth.

If you don’t fancy a raw food diet then you might want to consider the Shakeology system instead – simply e-mail me at CoachJim@FreeDailyFitnessTips.com and I’ll send you free information on this excellent diet supplement system.  Also, if you want to sign up for free daily fitness tips, simply click on the following link and you’ll get a year’s supply of fitness training tips.

This entry was posted on April 11, 2011 at 3:48 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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