The Raw Food Diet may be another diet trend you may have heard of. It seems pretty self explanatory. Eating only foods that can be consumed raw. Lots of vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds. For some of the extreme “Raw Foodies” this is their reality and they swear by it. From a nutrition background I can 100% see the benefit for your body. Vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds do provide all of our essential nutrients need to function. It is clean eating at its purest. Eating this extreme Raw Food Diet has been studied for helping chronic disease prevention and in some cases reversed them. The less extreme Raw Diet wants you to consume three quarters of your daily diet raw. Whole plant based foods from an organic source. The idea of easily digested foods that fill our bodies with helpful enzymes and fiber to power our bodies and help remove excess waste.
Now lets be honest this type of eating is not for everyone. Its not even for everyone who follows a Raw Food Diet. There are very extreme versions on this Diet and then there is the basics. The basics of the Raw Food Diet include much more than just Nuts, Seeds, Fruits and Vegetables. One quarter of your daily food can be cooked. Cooked vegetables, some lean meats or eggs can be included for those who want it. The idea that the majority of your diet consists of easily digested foods from an organic raw source. This will give your body more energy to remove extra waste and extra energy for other activities.
What Is The Raw Food Diet?
The whole idea of The Raw Food Diet is: Waste=Weight. Anything we eat that our body cannot quickly digest and remove is considered waste. And that waste then turns into weight gained. Foods that our body cannot fully use and then fully get rid of via our digestive system is considered waste. Processed foods, most dairy, calories dense foods, and most animal foods (meats and eggs) are all avoided. They are considered waste in our bodies. Waste is anything in our bodies that we cannot fully utilize and then fully remove in our waste. This diets benefits begin at the cellular level. Meaning this diets benefits come from the smallest units in our bodies. Our cells.
Our body is made up of billions of cells. They all act together to form our body and it functions. Our cells absorb and function off of everything we consume through food or absorb through our bodies. The idea of this diet is to consume clean raw foods that our body digests. And once digested our cells can fully use this fuel, metabolize it then send it for waste removal. When our cells fully use the clean raw food there is nothin left to store. When we have nothing to store in our cells there is no weight being gained. Along with the benefit of not storing excess waste it rids older stagnant waste from storage. The cells are only using the purest fuel. Meaning the cells operate at peak performance. No waste means we are giving our cells the premium gas. Our body will operate at its highest level. Another benefit that is claimed for those following The Raw Food Diet.
The Rules
When following this diet there are a few rules besides just eating foods that are “raw”.
Food Combinations
Food Combinations is a large part about this diet. There is said to be four different food categories when looking at food combinations: (1) Starches (2) fleshes (3) nuts/seeds/dried fruits and (4) fresh fruits. They don’t want you to combine any of these foods together in the same meal (for the most part). When these foods are eaten on their own it takes stress off of digestive system and our body can full digest, metabolize and remove the waste fully.
When we digest foods, our stomach process different foods in different amounts of time. These times depend on what food categories they fall into. When we combine foods not in the same categories in the same meal. Our stomachs digestion time can slow. What ever food that takes the longest to digest will be the time it takes for the whole meal to digest. An good example would be fresh fruits and starches in the same meal. Fruits on an empty stomach can be digested fully in twenty to thirty minutes. Where starches take several hours to be digested. So when they are eaten at the same meal that fruit will sit on our stomachs until the starches are fully digested. This sitting of fruits or other foods that are not being eaten in proper combinations. Fermentation can happen and cause digestion issues. These issues slow digestions, drain our bodies energy and cause extra body fat storage.
75% Raw and Organic
Eating 75% of your diet raw, organic and in proper combinations is the basic ask of The Raw Food Diet. When we cook plant foods at certain temperatures you are destroying some of the beneficial enzymes in the foods. Eating them raw keeps the enzymes intact and therefore delivering them to our cells to use for fuel. That premium gasoline. Our body can process foods in their natural form easier than processed or cooked foods (states The Raw Food Diet). We fill our cells with useful matter that powers them to their full potential. The useful matter is also easily moved for waste removal once used. This process also helps remove old waste that has built up in our bodies cells as well.
Waste Removal
One of the biggest parts of this diet is the emphasis on improving our waste removal system. They speak a lot on improving the function of our lower digestive system. They want to improve the movement through our intestines to our colon for removal. Providing nutrient rich raw foods help with the absorption in the small and large intestine of important nutrients. The raw foods are also very rich in fiber. Fiber is the greatest asset from foods for our lower digestive systems health. Fiber is only found in plant foods and is known for helping prevent chronic disease and improve health of our digestive system. The more we are able to remove waste from our body. The more our body will remove waste. This is not only waste that makes up extra weight but waste that pollutes our bodies.
They encourage cleanses, colonics, enemas, squatty pottys, dry brushing and exercise to induce sweating. All of these strategies encourage our body to rid waste. Either through our colons or lymphatic system. Moving of waste promotes more waste removal. Think of it as raking the lawn in spring. The more you rake the more waste you remove from your lawn. When you remove a good amount of waste from your lawn it gives space for fresh healthy grass to grow. The same goes for our waste removal systems. The more we move the more we can “regrow” healthy cells.
A Day On The Raw Food Diet
When starting this diet it is encouraged that you do a slow transition period. Slowly working up to 75% of your daily foods being eaten in the raw form. Jumping right into this eating pattern, like many other patterns can lead to failure. You have to slowly incorporate it into your life. A day for someone starting out would look like:
Starting your day with some fruit on an empty stomach. Waiting at least 30 minutes before eating anything else to ensure proper digestion. Then having sprouted bread toasted with avocado on top. Lunch would be a large salad with brown rice mixed in. Snack would be raw vegetables, hummus and nuts. Dinner could be a piece of lean chicken breast with steamed vegetables and quinoa. They allow chocolate that is 70% or higher cocoa and there are many raw food dessert recipes out there. So sweets are not forbidden. You will gradually add more raw foods and lessen your cooked foods as you become more comfortable with this eating pattern.
My Take
Raw Food Diet was one that I had tried awhile back. It promises fast weight loss which I WAS all about. I tried it and I really enjoyed it, I did see very fast results and I felt light and had a lot of energy. That being said it was a lot of work. I lasted just under a month. Went back to old habits and gained back all the weight plus. I did not have the discipline to keep up with it. It also didn’t work for the long term in my life. I did take a lot of points from this eating pattern and do still use them still in my everyday life. The diet itself was not ideal for me but there are a lot of things we should all incorporate into our daily diets.
Something I still always do is eat fruit only in the morning and on an empty stomach. Obviously this rule gets broken from time to time but I feel way better when I stick to this. I also really respect the idea of aiding in waste removal. I am not going for colonic and enemas but I am all about eating fiber rich foods, exercise and do dry brushing. Anything that aids my body to better rid waste I am all about. Eating as many foods as we can in its most natural state is also I am fully behind. The more we give our bodies nutrient rich foods the better our body works. Food is our medicine and we should use it properly.
If you want to learn how to use food as your medicine lets set up a free consultation. Send me an email at [email protected] or click the link at the bottom to book in,
