I’m often asked why I choose to live on a mostly raw diet. When I began to understand that life creates life, it made the raw transition an easy one. Enzymes, which are present in live vegan foods, fuel the human body with nutrients that are almost completely devoid in cooked foods.
Since eating a roughly 80 per cent raw diet I have loads of energy, my skin has much better tone, my thinking is clear and I simply feel great.
Here’s are some basics:
“Cooking literally destroys the life of food. During the heating process, valuable nutritional substances are altered. Once cooked above 115 to 118 degrees F, enzymes are destroyed. Proteins are greatly altered, fats oxidized, vitamins diminished. Minerals undergo molecular changes at higher temperatures, making them more difficult for the body to digest and metabolise. Because cooked food passes through the digestive tract much more slowly than raw food, fermentation and putrefaction can occur, causing buildup of gas and heartburn. Cooked food causes the body to work much harder for less nutrients.
Because there are few enzymes present in cooked foods, the body is forced to use its own limited reserves. Eventually, the body’s own enzymes are depleted. Low enzyme activity has been found to contribute to chronic conditions such as diabetes, allergies, skin disorders and cancer. It also results in weight gain, digestive disorders, lethargy, inflammation, and loss of both skin elasticity and muscle tone. Enzyme depletion and aging go hand-in-hand. Eating enzyme-less foods can also place a burden on your pancreas and other organs, which eventually exhausts these organs.”
~ The Simply Raw Living Foods Detox Manual by Natasha Kyssa
If you’re interested in exploring raw, check out the online social community, Give it to me Raw, to chat to those who are thinking about it and living it. Be sure to do your own research, as with diets it’s never a one size fits all.
