Raw Food - The Benefits

The Benefits of Raw Foods

Eating uncooked, raw food has major health benefits.

Raw versus Cooked - The Benefits of Raw Foods

More and more people are turning to a raw food diet, no longer cooking their food but eating raw salads, greens, fruit, nuts and seeds. Some people are 100% raw, others settle for a 70% raw - 30% cooked diet.

Great health claims are made for the benefits of 'living' food, whilst health scares are more and more associated with cooking food. As with many health issues, it depends on whom you want to listen too and whom you want to believe as to how you may feel about the issue.

One thing is becoming clear (or has been clear for ages, some might say) - that eating uncooked oils has major health benefits, whilst heating oils is known to destroy the goodness, and in some cases turn the oil carcinogenic. Uncooked oils may include cold pressed olive oil, flax oil, soya, hemp or walnut oil, and if used in their raw state, undamaged by heat, light or age, can have major health benefits. This is because the oils can be metabolised easily and used efficiently. Once cooked, however, the molecular structure is changed, and the body struggles to metabolise the fats. This is one of the reasons that people on a high fat raw food vegan diet do not put on weight.

For further information about oils and fats, see Udo Erasmus's book Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill. This groundbreaking book is considered by many to be the best on the subject of oils, fats and human health.

For further information about the benefits of raw foods, see www.fresh-network.com, www.rawcreation.com, or contact Jill Swyers from Living Foods For Optimum Health on 0208 870 7041 (www.jillswyers.com) or read The Sunfood Diet Success System by David Wolfe. For some fascinating pictures of what cooking does for food, see Eating For Beauty by David Wolfe.