What is the Raw Food Diet?

Have you started hearing about the Raw Food Diet? It’s gaining
popularity and buzz, not just as a diet to lose weight, but a
diet for a long and healthy life. We eat so much in the way of
processed food that we don’t even stop to think about what
we’re putting into our bodies, and how far we’ve come
nutritionally from our ancestral, agrarian roots.

A raw food diet means consuming food in its natural,
unprocessed form. There are several common-sense rationales
for why this is a good idea. Processing and cooking food can
take so much of the basic nutritional value away. Think of
some of the conventional wisdom you’ve heard about for years,
such as: If you cook pasta just to the al dente (or medium)
stage, it will have more calories, yes, but it will have more
the nutritional value in it than if you cooked it to a

well-done stage. Or you probably remember hearing not to peel
carrots or potatoes too deeply, because most of the nutrients
and values are just under the surface.

The raw food diet means eating unprocessed, uncooked, organic,
whole foods, such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes,
dried fruits, seaweeds, etc. It means a diet that is at least
75% uncooked! Cooking takes out flavor and nutrition from
vegetables and fruits. A raw food diet means eating more the
way our ancient ancestors did. Our healthier, more fit
ancestors. They cooked very little, and certainly didn’t cook
or process fruits and vegetables. They ate them RAW. Their
water wasn’t from a tap; it was natural, spring water. Maybe
they drank some coconut milk on occasion.

Doesn’t it just make sense that this is how our bodies were
meant to eat? It’s a way of eating that’s in harmony with the
planet and in harmony with our own metabolisms. Our bodies
were meant to work, and need to work to be efficient. That
means exercise, certainly, but it also means eating natural,
raw foods that require more energy to digest them.