7 Advantages to a Raw Diet
If you’re interested in getting healthy, one of the things you must consider first is your diet. A well balanced diet can help you live longer, keep your weight in check and can help ensure that you’re healthier overall. One of the healthiest diets out there is the raw diet, though many of us don’t know much about it.
Eating a raw diet has been around forever. In fact, it was the original diet, before people cooked any foods. Cooking only became popular when it was discovered that we needed the heat from cooking meat in order to kill harmful lingering bacteria. Since then, it seems we’ve cooked nearly everything. A raw diet means exactly what it sounds like – all foods are eaten in their natural raw state. Most people on a raw diet eat little or no meat. Some may eat sashimi (raw fish). Eating this way has the following advantages:
1. Raw foods are nutritionally better. Cooking depletes foods of their natural vitamins, damages proteins and fats, and destroys enzymes needed for digestion.
2. You’ll eat less when you eat raw. Because raw foods contain more of what our bodies need, we feel satisfied on less food. The balance of water, nutrition and fiber in raw foods is nearly perfect, so your caloric intake will decrease.
3. Raw foods have more flavor than cooked foods so it’s easy to reduce the salt in your diet.
4. Raw foods require very little preparation, allowing you to spend less time in the kitchen.
5. Eating a diet of raw foods is thought to prevent cancer, and may even aid in stopping the spread of cancer. Cooking foods creates free radicals which, when not combated, are linked to many serious illnesses such as heart disease and cancer. Eating raw foods not only prevents this free radical creation, but the anti-oxidants that are plentiful in fruits and vegetables actually combat free radicals in your system.
6. A raw food diet improves your immune system. The vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants in a raw diet increase your immune system function to allow you to fight off common colds, flu and other communicable diseases.
7. A raw diet is environmentally friendly. On a raw diet, you create less waste, such as paper and plastic packaging used in processed foods. You use less energy because a stove is not required. And, the waste you do create can go right into a compost pile and go back into the soil.
As you can see, with a raw diet, you’re likely to lose weight, save money and improve your health. Of course, many people are reluctant to make such a radical change to their diets, after eating cooked foods for so long. But, even if you can make a significant increase in the amount of raw food you eat along with a significant decrease in the amount of cooked food, you’ll see health benefits. Even starting slow can bring measurable differences in your weight, your health and your energy level.
Phyllis Zerkle is a freelance blogger and covers topics such as nurse’s assistant and registered nurse career issues.
ENDS