Raw Food Diet

A raw food diet focuses on unprocessed and uncooked plant foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables, sprouts, seeds, nuts, grains, beans, dried fruit, and seaweed. The diet omits foods that are processed or significantly cooked.
 
They believe that foods cooked above this temperature lose a significant amount of their nutritional value and are harmful to the body, whereas uncooked foods provide living enzymes and the highest possible nutritional value. Followers believe that the raw food diet improves overall health and immunity, prevents degenerative disease, slows the effects of aging, boosts energy, and balances emotions.
 
A raw food (also called living food) diet is an uncooked vegan or vegetarian diet, which consists of: 

• Berries
• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Roots
• Nuts
• Flowers
• Sea vegetables
• Germinated seeds
• Sprouts
• Sometimes raw dairy products

Plants are rich natural sources of antioxidants and other nutrients.  In addition, live food also contains enzymes that act as catalysts for detoxification and the absorption of nutrients.  Under naturopathy, juices of certain vegetables and fruits are used as cancer fighting foods.

GREEN LEAFY VEGETABLES

Green leaves are the best source of alkaline minerals, contain the best fiber, have many calming, anti-stress properties, and are the best source of chlorophyll. In 1950, Dr. Howard Westcott found that just 100 mg of greens in the diet neutralized bad breath, body odor, menstrual odors, and foul-smelling urine and stools.

ENZYMES

The body attempts to adapt to cooked food by increasing the enzyme content of saliva to begin breaking down the food as quickly as possible. The saliva of a raw food eater contains far fewer enzymes than that of a person who eats cooked food.  This is because raw foods contain enzymes of their own, making salivary enzymes not as strongly needed for digestion.  Without the proper enzymes to break down foods, we begin to accumulate undigested materials in our system. This leads to:

• Weight gain
• Inflammation
• Stagnation
• Digestive distress
• Fatigue