Raw food diet can be different as people that consume this kind of food.
Raw food diet is catching on with people of all ages across several countries in a big way. Before we go on to what are the different kind of food that can be considered raw food, and what the advantage of such food are, an understanding of what raw food actually means, is very important.
Raw food, as the name itself suggests, is food that is eaten raw, or uncooked. Several food theorists believe that essential nutrients are destroyed when some food is cooked, and hence it must be consumed in its original form to retain all the nutrients.
Apart from that, there is another definition of raw food that indicates that raw food is also called ‘living food’. This primarily means that in such food, the enzymes are active, that is to say, they are still fully functional as far as their duties are concerned. Such food is eaten because of the wider range of health benefits it has to offer because of its active enzymes.
Also, the raw-foodists, among themselves, are divided into three basic categories.
1. The first among these are the ‘living foodists’. They, as mentioned earlier, eat food that has its enzymes still active. It includes sprouted seeds and nuts.
2. Another such category is called the ‘juicearians’. All the food that they consume is that made out of home made juices.
3. Third is the raw foodist who are not vegetarians
Other practices:
Eat raw foods including meat (paleolithic diet or primal diet),
Raw vegan gourmet – reproduce dishes similar in taste and texture to normal vegetarian, vegan or even meat-eating foods
Purists – eat foods in their natural state as much as possible
Instinctos – eat natural foods based on your body’s responses to their smell & taste
Fruitarians – eat fruits only
Most people identify themselves as the percentage of their diet they’ve converted to raw food – 20% raw, 50% raw, up to 100% raw.
There are also raw foodists that consume raw eggs, raw foodists that don’t eat fruits, raw foodists that don’t eat anything of animal origin, those who don’t eat any sprouted seeds and a lot of other. Whatever raw food trend you choose you should be first of all well informed, and second – it should be right for you. You can experiment and see what is best for you.
Advantages of such kind of food are numerous and varied.
Here are some of them:
• Weight loss. With the number of obese people across the globe increasing, this food is consumed keeping in mind such concern. Raw food has been known to control weight gain to quite an extent.
• Healthy lifestyle. It is a common belief that raw food goes a long way in enhancing the health of an individual. In fact, they have also been proven useful to animals like cats and dogs, though their digestive systems are very different from those of human beings.
ALWAYS remember that your meal should be various not to be lacking in necessary nutrients. The ideal percentages seem to be 75-85% fruit, 10-20% green leafy vegetables, and 5% nuts and seeds
The main diet of raw foodists consists of, apart from the items mentioned above, raw fruits, raw vegetables, legumes, nuts, and seeds.
Some raw foodists also prefer having their milk non-pasteurized. Since pasteurizing is essentially boiling milk to kill its bacteria, which die only at high temperatures, they do not go down very well with the practices of the raw foodists. Hence, the non-pasteurized milk that they must consume must be fresh so as not to infect the consumer with the bacteria they contain.