Only in the small “health nut” cir­cles has the idea of eat­ing a raw diet been main­stream. Lately, how­ever, it is gain­ing more wide-spread pop­u­lar­ity. An increas­ing num­ber of peo­ple are now pro­mot­ing the vari­ety of ben­e­fits from eat­ing raw food.

Advo­cates of a raw food diet believe it is the most log­i­cal diet for humans. After all, our hunt­ing and gath­er­ing ances­tors ate a large major­ity of their diet in raw form. Pro­po­nents believe raw food con­tains enzymes and nutri­tional con­tent lost in the process of cook­ing the food.

Types of Raw Food Diets

There are vary­ing degrees of a raw food diet.

* Raw food­ism refers to a diet with­out any food restric­tions as long as it’s raw or warmed to less than 105 degrees.

* Raw veg­ans con­sume only fruits, veg­eta­bles, nuts, seeds, sprouts and legumes, and no ani­mal prod­ucts (meat or dairy).

* The Raw Pale­olithic Dieters eat meat, organ-meats, fruit, veg­eta­bles, honey, nuts, fish, shell­fish, and eggs. They exclude dairy, grains, legumes and veg­etable juices from their diet.

Within their food restric­tions, they all require that at least 75 per­cent of foods in the diet are eaten raw, or are warmed to a tem­per­a­ture of no more than 105 degrees prior to eating.

Ben­e­fits of the Raw Food Diet

* One of obvi­ous ben­e­fits of a raw food diet is weight loss. As most raw food dieters eat only plant foods, fewer calo­ries are usu­ally con­sumed. The diet is also usu­ally low in fat, unless a large amount of seeds and nuts are eaten regularly.

* Improved diges­tion is also a ben­e­fit of eat­ing a raw food diet. This is due to the diges­tive enzymes present in raw foods, allow­ing the body’s own enzymes to main­tain their focus on reg­u­lat­ing it’s metab­o­lism. Peo­ple who com­plain of a low metab­o­lism may ben­e­fit from eat­ing more raw food. Oth­ers who com­plain of diges­tive issues such as acid reflux may also benefit.

* Those on the raw food diet often report an increase in energy. The body doesn’t have to work as hard to pro­duce enzymes, as they already exist in the raw food. They also tend not to com­bine pro­teins and carbs in the same meal which slows diges­tion and zaps our energy.

* The down­side of eat­ing cooked food in which the enzymes have been destroyed makes diges­tion more dif­fi­cult. This could lead to tox­ins accu­mu­lat­ing in the body, obe­sity and chronic disease.

* Raw foods con­tain ben­e­fi­cial bac­te­ria and other micro-organisms that ben­e­fit the immune sys­tem and diges­tion by increas­ing the healthy gut flora in the diges­tive tract. You may have heard of tak­ing pro­bi­otic sup­ple­ments to achieve the same thing.

The raw food diet may sound like a life of depri­va­tion to some, but it is not as lim­it­ing as one might think. Advo­cates believe there are a num­ber of ben­e­fits backed up by sci­en­tific evi­dence. Try incor­po­rat­ing more raw food with each meal and expe­ri­ence the ben­e­fits yourself.

For exam­ple, try adding fresh fruit with break­fast, fresh cut veg­eta­bles at lunch, nuts and seeds for a snack and a salad at din­ner. Expe­ri­ence for your­self the ben­e­fits of eat­ing foods the way nature presents them.

By: Deb­o­rah Hoeve