The raw food diet is exploding in popularity. It's estimated that the phenomenon is growing at the rate of approximately 100% per year! And when you examine the health benefits of the lifestyle, it's not hard to see why. Living foods are the healthiest option for humans, and it's the diet our bodies were designed to eat.
Let's look at the top 5 reasons raw is best:
1. Enzymes - Enzymes are necessary for many bodily functions. Enzymes are necessary for digesting food. Raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, and grains contain all of the enzymes needed for digesting them. When those foods are cooked, they lose many of those enzymes, and your body has to provide them. There is evidence that the body only produces a finite amount of enzymes in its lifetime, and aging may accelerate rapidly once the supply begins to dry up. By consuming foods in their living state, you can protect your body's natural supply and potentially live a longer, healthier life.
2. Vitamins - You probably only know that the vitamin content is significantly reduce when food is cooked. By eating foods raw, you will preserve the vitamin content and get far more bang for your buck from the foods you consume. Because the cooking process destroys much of a food's vitamin content, those 5 servings of vegetables the food pyramid recommends may not be enough.
3. Calories - Raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and grains are generally lower in calories than meats and other foods people usually consume. Although there are a few higher-calorie raw foods, most of them can be enjoyed in mostly unlimited quantities without the fear of gaining weight.
4. Antioxidants - Although some antioxidants, like lycopene, may be more effective in foods that are cooked, others may be destroyed during the cooking process. Antioxidants are believed to play a role in fighting cancer and slowing the aging process, and may have may other health benefits that haven't yet been discovered.
5. Additives - Processed foods often have dangerous chemicals and additives that can cause all kinds of health problems. Many processed foods contain chemicals and additives like saccharine, BHA and BHT, MSG, Potassium Bromate, Aspartame, and nitrates and nitrites among others. Hydrogenated vegetable oil is another very dangerous additive. These things should be avoided, and you can easily avoid all of them by simply sticking to a natural diet like the raw food diet.
Many other health benefits can be received from this lifestyle. Some people have reported having minor changes in their appearance, like seeing gray hair turn dark again or seeing their skin clear up dramatically. Others have seen effects such as weight loss, normalized blood sugar levels, lower cholesterol, improvements in arthritis and bursitis, and many others. For many, the diet seems like a miracle. In reality, it's just the type of food humans were meant to eat. We are the only species who cooks their food, and we also have more natural health issues than any other species. It may be a coincidence, but it's one humans probably shouldn't leave up to chance.
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