When it comes to health, the real common denominator is energy. And we know to get this energy we need a balance of proper nutrition, exercise and rest. Exercise is fairly straightforward -- there's a way to do it that suits everyone. Rest is simple too, if we can make the time, and reduce our stimulant intake so that we can actually sleep at night. But nutrition seems to continue to be a puzzle. Many diets can help one condition or another, but very few offer a complete picture: a lifelong path to high energy and vibrant health. Ready to make a real change? It's time to have a look at the raw and living foods diet.
Immediately that sounds a little crazy. Far out. "What, am I going to have salad at every meal?" The answer is, only if you want to. The raw and living food diet is not simply about keeping all your food preparation at below a certain temperature, it's about eating gourmet, beautifully prepared, nutrient dense meals and feeling your best every single day.
Interestingly, there's a lot of opposition to eating this way -- clearly from folks who either haven't tried it, or haven't given it a real effort. Claims are made that raw food is hard to digest (while somehow all life on the Planet got along quite well for millions of years without cooking!) or that the food will be too cold (have they tried a raw Jalapeno?).
So what is it about un-cooked food that's different? The big difference from a science-based standpoint is the availability of enzymes. These small molecules enable every chemical process in our body to occur. Many people are familiar with digestive enzymes -- the reason we might need to take them is that these enzymes have been cooked out of the food we're eating. When the food has not been heated over one hundred and fifteen degrees, the enzymes stay intact and assist digestion. These same little molecules help many, many reactions, and if they're not in our food, our bodies have to make them. Further, low levels of enzymes have been related to most of the major diseases we're -- raw foods offer a way to avoid the illnesses so prevalent in society today by offering us these very important nutrients.
Many people find they get fatigued by eating -- even when they're eating what they consider to be pretty healthy, many folks have a response that ranges from feeling a little mentally hazy to really tired after a meal. What's with that? That's the energy your body is expending having to produce enzymes, as well as dealing with the great many toxins produced by cooking. While the cooking process makes food truly addictive with its flavor, it also creates by products that do things like thicken our blood and jump start our immune system into action -- behaving as if we've been poisoned every time we eat.
Enzymes, the alkaline environment, and the high levels of minerals present in the raw food diet have made it popular with leading edge physicians. There have been reports of people cured of diabetes by following the diet with the modification of a very low sugar intake. It has also been proposed to be the foundation of alternative cancer treatments, in that cancer cells cannot survive in highly alkaline environments.
From a more esoteric standpoint, when whole, organic, plant-based food is not heated when prepared, the enzymes remain intact, micro-nutrients remain intact, and the life force of the food remains intact. Raw food proponents make the natural connection that the life force of the food is readily available to our bodies, where it would not have been otherwise. The food you're eating was alive a short time ago, with roots in the ground, converting sunlight to energy -- why kill it by cooking it if you too want to have the greatest amount of life force?
The reasons for the raw food diet are many -- if you're wanting to simply have the greatest, most consistent energy levels of your life, this is the way to go. If you're wanting to incorporate diet into your personal evolution, or as a way to save the planet, again raw food is worth looking into. We've really only scratched the surface here; if you're interested, find yourself a book on the subject and investigate further. Folks who have transitioned to the raw food lifestyle believe clearly, it was one of them most effective changes they've ever made.
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