The raw food diet is nothing new, but it is becoming more and more popular these days. Even some celebrities are embracing the raw food diet. There are several reasons a person may go on a raw food diet.
One reason for going on a raw food diet is to detoxify the body, allow the digestive system to rest, and allow the liver to recover from the work of coping with toxins in the body. When you want to use the raw food diet to detoxify the body, you don’t need to do it for very long. A week or two will do the trick.
Another purpose of the raw food diet is to prevent toxins from entering the body in the first place. It can boost the immune system, eliminate food allergies, and improve one’s mood and mental functioning. The raw food diet can also help with skin problems, digestive problems, and chronic fatigue.
The raw food diet can also help to prevent a number of health problems. It is a low-fat, low sodium diet, so it helps prevent heart disease, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. It may also prevent certain types of cancer.
When you want to use the raw food diet for this purpose, you need to follow the diet long term. It can be hard to sustain this type of diet for long periods of time, however. After all, it is pretty restrictive diet.
The raw food diet can also help you lose weight. That’s because the diet consists primarily of fresh fruits and vegetables. Meats, dairy products, and grains are eaten sparingly. Junk food” is left out of the diet altogether. A raw food diet can be used for a short time to help with weight loss, or it can be used long term to help maintain weight loss.
The raw food diet may be lacking in certain vitamins and minerals, and so some supplements may be necessary. These include calcium, iron, and vitamin B12.
The raw food diet generally uses organic foods whenever possible. Eating foods grown with pesticides may introduce new toxins into your system.
The raw food diet generally consists of at least 75% raw, uncooked foods. Raw foods include fresh fruits and vegetables (organic if possible), fruit and vegetable juices, dried fruit, sprouted seeds and grains, rolled or flaked grains, nuts, and herbs and spices. Cooked foods may include legumes and grains such as brown rice. Yogurt may also be included in the diet (again, organic if possible). The raw food diet is usually a vegetarian diet.
Here is a sample raw food menu for a day.
Breakfast
Raw granola, fresh fruit, and organic yogurt.
Snack
Fruit or vegetable juice.
Lunch
Green salad with oil and vinegar dressing, topped with sunflower seeds.
Snack
Strawberry-banana smoothie.
Dinner
Raw mixed vegetable soup (blended or processed in a food processor) and cooked brown rice.
Snack
Fresh fruit.
You can find raw food cookbooks in any bookstore or at your local library. You can also look up sample menus online.
Sources:
Cathy Wong. http://altmedicine.about.com/od/popularhealthdiets/a/Raw_Food.htm. Raw Food Diet.
