Food: Living the Raw Diet Lifestyle

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Living the Raw Diet Lifestyle
Thursday, December 29, 2005

In a world where food is scare in some countries, people in other countries have decided to give up many of those foods. People who choose to live the raw diet lifestyle often do so because they want to preserve their health and believe that the cooking process destroys food. Other people look at the energy and resources wasted on processing and cooking foods and want to give back to the Earth by not partaking of cooked foods. Still others believe that they will feel better by focusing on parts of their life besides eating.

The raw diet is an extreme form of veganism, which means eating nothing with any animal by-products, in which the dieter eats only unprocessed, plant-based foods. Getting to 90 percent uncooked foods is considered ideal, but most people believe that a 75 percent raw diet is adequate.

Many people who live the raw diet lifestyle, so-called for the changes it requires in the way one exists in the world, point to the destruction of valuable enzymes through cooking. Temperatures in excess of 116 degrees, required for most cooking, can destroy some enzymes and rob the food of ingredients essential to a healthy body.

Raw dieters have some basic ways that they can prepare their food. Vegetables and fruits can be eaten as they are, or they can be juiced. Nuts and grains are soaked so that they soften up. Most people who live the raw life use a food appliance called a dehydrator that works similar to a steamer. The dehydrator blows hot air onto the food. It never reaches the magical 116 degrees, but it does soften up the food some for eating.

Still, if you are unfamiliar with the raw diet lifestyle, you likely are racking your brain trying to determine what it is that you can eat. Here are the basics of the raw diet: any fresh fruit and vegetable, including dried fruits; any nuts; seeds; beans; seaweed; grains; and legumes. Raw dieters drink fruit juice, freshly squeezed, purified water, and coconut milk.

Raw dieters believe that food is not meant to sit in our bodies. Instead each food is designed with a certain combination of enzymes that will lead to its own digestion without relying on the body's own system, such as the stomach's hydrochloric acid. By stopping the need for these enzymes, the raw dieter is stopping the body's production of acids.

People who live this lifestyle must be committed. It essentially means never going out, never eating at a friend's house, and never ordering Chinese takeout. That means that to convince people to try the diet and then follow it makes it necessary to cite some of the health benefits. People who use the raw diet report that they feel better and more energetic after only a short time on the diet. They lose weight, which probably does not surprise many readers, but they also have less risk for heart disease. In addition, raw dieters report that their digestive functions are improved from their lifestyle choice.

The biggest danger for somebody starting is to beware of detoxification effects. If you go to any alternative remedy set on ridding the body of the processing of modern culture, you will hear about detoxification effects. Your body essentially has built up toxins, to which you are immune, because of the way you live. When you seek out medical or nutrition treatments that deny the continued build-up of the toxins, your body expels them. You can experience diarrhea, headaches, nausea, and even depression from this process. If it does not go away within a few weeks, then you should seek out someone experienced in alternative lifestyles to help you.

Know that while you are making the transition, these symptoms are indicative only of how many toxins were in your body when you began. Waiting out the symptoms is the best solution to the problems. Raw foodists report that they feel much better after this initial period and would not return to a life of eating non-raw foods. Also keep in mind that you should watch your iron and calcium levels, as an unbalanced raw diet will leave out these two important nutrients. Chart your food and see how you feel.

By Julia Mercer

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