Raw Food Diets, Ever Thought About Doing it?
Raw food diet, ever thought about doing it? Perhaps you don’t even know what it is. Well if you don’t, your best guess is probably right. It’s a diet that consists of 80% or higher of raw, uncooked food. You might think this means you are allowed to eat only fruits and vegetables, not the case. Read on…
My Experience
I’ve always been into health and been on almost every diet known to man for a substantial run. I mean that quite literally; ketogenic, Vegetarian, Vegan, pescatarian, wheat free, gluten free, nightshade free, Eat right for your blood type, dairy free, fish free, pork free, corn free, raw and probably several I’m forgetting. I’ve also done just about every fast you can imagine but that’s for another lens.
Now everybody responds differently to the “free” diets as not everyone is sensitive to a particular food. For example my wife eats gluten free and she feels better. I’ve been extensively food allergy tested, though it was long after I had tried all the above ways of eating. But I can eat gluten all day long and it doesn’t bother me a bit.
However, eating raw is something I believe is almost universally beneficial to everyone so long as you avoid any food allergies you may have. I know a few people who have done it and we all had the same results. The purpose of this lens is not to give you recipes or cooking tips. Those can be found in many books and they do a much better job than I can of giving you instructions. The purpose of this lens is to tell you how eating raw works, what the benefits are and hopefully get you psyched to try it.
My Experience with Raw Food
My, and other’s experience with eating raw is nothing short of amazing. I listed all the diets I’ve done above, and nothing, I mean NOTHING, has come close to the profound effects that the raw food diet produces. WIthin 30 days you will start to see dramatic changes.
Your skin will start to clear up. I have always had less than perfect skin but when eating raw the oiliness evened out, any acne went away. The skin looks radiant, almost glowing. Your skin is your largest detoxifying agent. When we are eating toxic foods it makes sense that your visible detoxifying agent will look tired. When eating raw and organic there is so much less to detoxify that the skin will just look more alive.
Your eyes will clear up. You might not think your eyes look “tired” now (talking about the actual eyeball) but when eating raw the whites will get whiter, the iris will become brighter and color more intense. Not only does your actual eye look more clear but your vision will change. My friends and I all noticed that colors look brighter, more vibrant and saturated. It’s almost as if the cloud that is lifted from your physical eyeball allows your vision to change. You will still need glasses if you use them, but colors, daylight etc will all be more alive than they were before.
You will lose weight almost certainly. When you remove the crap that we normally eat which is requisite for this diet you will reduce your calorie count drastically. The odd thing that my friends and I noticed is that you can eat as much as you want, and the weight will just drop off. After a couple weeks of eating raw you’ll notice you actually start to become less hungry and really oddly you will start to crave the healthy food. I’m not going to lie to you, depending on how poorly your diet was before, the first few days or couple weeks can be a commitment. You will still crave cola and sweets or whatever it was you were eating before. The theory is until your body detoxifies itself from all the impurities contained in those foods your body will still crave them. Whether or not this is how it works or not is unimportant, what’s important is that it happens.
Your hair and nails will look healthier. This I think is the most odd one of all because both are actually dead cellular material to begin with. I laugh when I see these shampoo commercials that talk about thicker healthier hair. What else that is dead besides hair and nails do we ever look at and use the word “healthy?” As weird as it sounds it does happen. Your hair will look thicker and shinier without being oily. Your nails, well I don’t really know how to describe it but they will just look better.
And not to get to gross but one of the other amazing things that will happen is that you start smelling and stop smelling at the same time. The first is easier to explain so I’ll start with it. Your sense of smell will become more acute. The second one is less fun to talk about but t must be mentioned. Once you have been on the diet for 2 weeks to a month your bowel movements will stop smelling. I kid you not. And we know it’s true because we all noticed that our sense of smell was more acute but bowel movements and underarms no longer smell. I stopped using deodorant altogether. The underarms I can actually scientifically explain to you why it happens. We have several areas in our body that sweat and detoxify our bodies on a regular basis. However your underarms are the one area that also secretes proteins which combined with the sweat allows bacteria to grow and that is what causes the odor. When eating raw your protein intake is lower and from much less toxic sources so you just stop stinking under there. I assume the same thing is at play with bowel movements.
You will feel more vibrant, energetic, alive and healthy. Your whole body will function better as a unit. You will look significantly younger, to the point where people will comment about it. They will almost always attribute it to a product that we use on the outside of our body. A new shampoo or skin cream, perhaps a crash diet. When you tell them what the difference has been a lot of them have a hard time believing it. But to you, now, after trying it and seeing the benefits above that I guarantee you will see it just makes so much sense. When the body is happy and healthy on the inside, without a huge load of toxins to get rid of, it naturally starts to show on the outside.
What is Involved in Eating a Raw Food Diet
So now that I’ve told you about all the benefits you are probably wondering what you are in for. Well, first of all if you are going this far to free your body from toxins and experience all the above benefits you are probably going to want to go that extra step and do organic food. There is some debate about this and I don’t want to get into it here but one thing that is pretty well accepted is that the toxins that are in meat far outweigh the impurities in conventional raw fruits and vegetables.
Raw food isn’t just considered uncooked fruits and vegetables. It can be any food that has not been heated above 120 degrees. This opens the door to all kinds of soups, breads, and meals that are at least warm. Ezekiel bread is considered raw and comes in many varieties. Many soups can be made in a blender like a Vitamix or equally strong blender. You have the entire world of fresh fruits and vegetables. You also have juicing and smoothies which make an enjoyable part of your diet. Also sprouts which come in many varieties are used a lot. Many nuts and seeds can be found in raw form. Many fermented foods are considered raw and very beneficial. Depending on if you choose to include dairy or not there are many dairy products that are considered raw. However almost universally dairy is not healthy for people. With few exceptions it causes a mucus buildup in the intestinal tract making it harder for your gut to absorb nutrients the way it should. Humans are the only mammals on earth that continue to drink milk beyond infancy and I find most people that attempt to eliminate it do better. Dehydrated foods are used a lot and are almost endless in variety. There is not a shortage of foods, you just have to educate yourself about them.
If you are a person who enjoys a meal or “cooking” as opposed to constant small snacking there is also no shortage of raw “uncook” books. I’ve included some of the better ones I’ve come across in this lens. It is a different style of cooking with not heating items above 120 degrees, different products than you are used to working with and different methods of preparation. Many of the raw books explain how to get the nutrition you need from raw foods. Many people worry about protein. In America our suggested protein intake is far higher than necessary, and there are studies that show that consumption of animal protein actually causes our bodies to need even more protein than usual. Any decent book will explain it in depth and how you can get plenty of protein from a raw vegan diet. Neither me nor my friends, one of whom was a girl ever had a problem with protein intake or iron. You would be amazed at what vitamins, minerals and proteins are contained in plants, we are just conditioned to believe we need to find them in dairy and meat products by the dairy and meat companies.
Won’t I Feel Deprived?
In the beginning detoxifying stage you might. There are ways to speed this process up. By doing a juice fast, smoothie fast, the master cleanse, or if you are really hard core and have nothing important to get done for a few days a straight water fast. I have done all of these and the first two are rather easy. The master cleanse is more involved (look it up) but very effective. By the end of it you don’t even want to look at junk food, it’s just not appealing anymore. The water fast is tough, I managed 3 days total before I was about to collapse and it’s not one I would recommend to people.
You do not need to jump start the detoxifying process though, just starting the raw food diet will get that going. But some people (like myself) like to go whole hog and for those people if you so desire you can start with any of the above detoxification methods to lessen the amount of time you will still be craving junk food. But I assure you this goes away and it’s not that bad. One of the biggest parts of eating raw is drinking lots of filtered or spring water (no tap water with chlorine and fluoride etc). This in and of itself will make you feel fuller. Don’t let the deprivation stage stop you from trying this, it’s really minor.
Also, if it lifts your spirits, most people do not eat 100% raw, even 80% will make a drastic difference in your life if you cut out the dairy and meat. So you are still allowed use cooked rice or quinoa once in a while or whatever your pleasure. But keep it 80% or higher as less than that is putting in the work but not getting the full benefit, the worst of both worlds. I shoot for 90% myself.
Try it for 30 Days
You know the old adage “don’t knock it till ya’ tried it” I’ve applied that where appropriate in my life (i.e. not crack cocaine) and stumbled upon some pretty amazing things. One of the first was running. I would see these people running regularly even in the harsh New England weather. The same person running in the rain, in the snow. My first thought was they must be crazy, but after a while I began to think “There must be something to this or these people wouldn’t be doing it.” So I began running regularly and didn’t let myself stop until I had achieved that runner’s high I had heard so much about. After that I was hooked (i.e. like crack cocaine) I got it, I understood why those people continued to do this even in the rain and it was a big part of my life until I got sick and could no longer physically do it.
The Raw Food Diet is one place where that old adage could not be more appropriate. If you need to re-read the part about the benefits do it, get psyched. Commit to it for 30 days and see if it at the end it’s not the best you’ve felt and looked in a long time. It’s life changing, you will notice, others will notice, it’s that apparent.
The effects are so profound that twice in my life I saw a celebrity on TV that looked so great, just so vibrant and healthy that I said to myself “I bet they are eating raw” They just had that familiar glow to their skin and brightness to their faces. People who eat raw have a distinct healthy look to them, and both times I searched the net afterwards and found I was right. Those people if you are curious were Woody Harrelson and Demi Moore who both look amazing for their age. If the effects are that apparent that I can pick out a celebrity on TV and tell they are eating raw how much more profound do you think the results will be for you and everyone you know in real life.
Don’t knock it till ya’ tried it. What do you have to lose besides excess weight, fatigue, looking tired etc. I’d be willing to risk those things.
JoshuaJDavid 