Natural foods give maximum nutrients, contain no additives, and they are easy for our bodies to digest. Replacing processed and heavily cooked foods with natural food choices is one of the best ways that we can obtain health. Among the well-known natural food diets are the raw food diet, the raw vegan diet, and the Paleo diet.
All of the natural diets include raw fruits and vegetables, but they do have their differences: The raw vegan diet does not include any meat or cooked food. A raw food diet, or “raw diet,” includes some animal products and some gently cooked foods in addition to raw fruits and vegetables. A Paleo diet includes much more meat than a raw diet does.
As you can see, the various diets are on a continuum, with the raw diet in the middle. Being balanced option, the raw diet will give your body all the nutrients that it needs to heal itself, function at an optimum level, and make you feel the best that you can feel. You will benefit most from the raw diet.
Following are 10 health benefits of the raw food diet:
• Lowers inflammation
• Provides dietary fiber and prevents constipation
• Improves digestion
• Improves heart health
• Optimizes liver function
• Gives energy
• Gives you clearer skin
• Prevents nutrient deficiencies
• May help prevent cancer
• Maintains a healthy weight
Let’s take a closer look at each of these benefits.
1. Lowers Inflammation
Most people who eat a standard American diet (SAD) consume way too many acidic foods, which causes inflammation and autoimmune reactions. These reactions happen because acidic foods ferment in the gut. Raw foods are better quality food. They alkalize the body and, therefore, don’t allow fermentation in the gut to occur.
People who suffer from obesity, hormonal imbalance, pre-menstrual syndrome, headaches, muscle aches and pains, joint pain, fatigue, food allergies, autoimmune disorders, Parkinson’s disease, gallstones, gallbladder disease, kidney disease, osteoporosis, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease, or cancer especially need to get on a raw diet.
One particularly helpful aspect of the raw diet when it comes to fighting inflammation is the replacement of unhealthy fats with healthy fats.
People who already have inflammatory bowel disease need to cook their food over low to medium heat (under 112 degrees) instead of eating everything in its high-fiber state. That is because these individuals lack the digestive enzymes that are needed to break down (digest) the diet’s high amount of fiber.
An inability to digest uncooked food properly means the person doesn’t get the vitamins and minerals they need, and that can lead to various illnesses. Light cooking predigests their otherwise raw food, solving the problem.
[nextpage title=“Next” ]2. Provides Dietary Fiber and Prevents Constipation
Food that is not cooked retains its fiber, and a high amount of fiber quickly moves things along through the dietary tract.
[nextpage title=“Next” ]3. Improves Digestion
Enzymes are needed to digest food and release the nutrients. The pancreas produces enzymes. Raw food also provides us with enzymes. When we let the food that we eat retain its enzymes, the combined enzymes easily digest our food and we absorb nutrients.
Cooking food over 112 degrees will kill enzymes, which is why food consumed while on a raw food diet is not usually cooked. Also, some foods, such as high-antioxidant foods, are more sensitive to cooking than other foods are, making them lose their nutrients at lower temperatures than other foods do.
Whenever food remains in our digestive tract too long, it tends to ferment. Fermentation causes inflammation, gas, and toxic waste to accumulate. It also causes fats to go rancid and proteins to putrefy.
When these various things stay in the gut, they pierce through the mucosal gut lining in many places, allowing food particles to escape into the bloodstream and cause various health problems. Collectively, these problems that result from a gut that leaks are called leaky-gut syndrome.
In contrast, raw foods don’t spend much time in the digestive tract. They flow through the tract quickly and also heal the gut lining.
[nextpage title=“Next” ]4. Improves Heart Health
Because the raw diet replaces hydrogenated oil, vegetable oil, canola oil, soybean oil and trans fats with healthy fats, the arteries and veins are not being clogged up. Healthy fats are found in nuts, seeds, avocados, butter made from grass-fed animals, cold-pressed coconut oil, and extra virgin olive oil.
The high fiber in the diet was found in one study to control blood pressure, dropping the diastolic blood pressure by an average of 17.8 points.
[nextpage title=“Next” ]5. Optimizes Liver Function
Whenever the blood is cleaned by wheatgrass and other healthy food, all organs in the body benefit.
[nextpage title=“Next” ]6. Gives Energy
The typical Western diet makes the pH of our bodies quite acidic. Acid people are tired, irritable, unenthusiastic, and they don’t sleep well. Raw food balances pH.
Wheatgrass, in particular, cleans the blood. Clean blood gives an energy boost, as do unclogged arteries and veins.
Raw food is energy boosting!
[nextpage title=“Next” ]7. Gives You Clearer Skin
With open arteries and the veins, blood flows through the body giving the body what is needed to heal. This is good news for people who suffer from the effects of leaky-gut syndrome, which often causes skin problems. Free-flowing, blood coupled with food that passes quickly through the system allows the punctured gut to heal and the blood to continue to get cleaner.
[nextpage title=“Next” ]8. Prevents Nutrient Deficiencies
The inclusion of meat in the diet provides a level of nutrition that one cannot get from just plants. Plant proteins do not provide all of the essential amino acids that your body needs and cannot make on its own. Without animal food, you would run low on the protein, vitamins B (especially B12 and folate), selenium, zinc, healthy saturated fats, and omega-3 that you need.
The source of the food that you eat on a raw food diet is an important component of the diet. The veggies you eat need to be organic and the cattle and other sources of meat need to be grass-fed or pasture-raised. The dairy food that you consume needs to be raw or fermented. The eggs you eat need to come from cage-free birds. Your fish needs to be wild-caught.
As previously discussed, uncooked food contains enzymes, which aid in digestion and the release of nutrients. Since food eaten while on the raw food diet is not cooked beyond 112 degrees, the enzymes remain in the food that is consumed, thereby releasing nutrients during the digestion process.
[nextpage title=“Next” ]9. May Help Prevent Cancer
Few harmful additives, chemicals, or other things are consumed on the raw food diet if the food is properly sourced and the consumption of animal products is done at a moderate level. Animals could have been exposed to hormones, antibiotics, herbicides, and pesticides that you are unaware of.
Many vegetables and fruits contain nutrients that actually kill cancer cells, or at least stop cancer from spreading.
Sugar is thought by many people to feed cancer, and it is not eaten by raw foodists. White bread, white pasta, cereal, pizza, crackers, condiments and sauces, soups, sweetened yogurt, and other such items either break down into sugar or contain sugar, which is why they are also avoided on the raw diet.
Food items such as Ezekiel bread, sourdough bread, and sprouted beans are consumed in their place. Legumes and raw grains are fermented, which makes them edible. These fermented foods are included on the raw diet.
Additionally, the replacement of bad fats with good fats goes a long way toward preventing cancer.
[nextpage title=“Next” ]10. Maintains a Healthy Weight
Obviously, you will drop the extra weight fast if you replace the bad fats with good fats and fiber-rich foods. One big factor that keeps people on the raw diet is how enjoyable the healthy foods are. Another is that it takes little preparation.
Food choices on the raw food diet include things like raw yogurt, organic and raw regular kefir, coconut kefir, extra virgin coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, citrus fruits, watermelon, cantaloupe, avocados, raw vegetables, leafy green vegetables, and cultured vegetables.
Once people get used to raw food, cravings for less healthy food go away and healthy food becomes all that is desired.
The raw food diet is more of a lifestyle than a diet, offering the kinds of food that our bodies are meant to eat. Raw food can benefit everyone, heal the body and build a strong immune system.
