Better than a Big Mac

A lot of people think raw food is crazy, but research speaks for itself. Here is the 411 on my lifestyle change:

I don’t get it. What does ‘raw food’ mean?

Basically, the act of heating food over 116 degrees destroys enzymes (they actually start to degrade in as little as 106 degrees F). All cooked food is devoid of enzymes, because cooking food changes the molecular structure of the food and renders it toxic. Raw foods have enormously higher nutrient values than the foods that have been cooked. Enzymes are essential – they are the key to digestion and fuel our bodies.

So, you’re spending all your money on ‘organic food’?

No. While organic produce often contains less pesticide and other toxic residues, a quick wash can get rid of any harmful substances. Raw food like carrots and avocados are rarely ‘treated’, even if not organic. I’m keeping it ‘clean’.

But why would you limit yourself?

No limitations, babes. Before we started killing and eating dead animal carcass, we ate fruits, leaves, nuts, berries, etc. Chemical free is the way to be! Raw foodists are internally ‘pure’ and experience improvements in their general physical and mental status, including more energy, better health, weight loss, detoxification, and a stronger immune system that better resists and recovers from just about any kind of disease. Yes, it cures disease. No more chomping animal friends, and no more cooking! (Not that I could cook, anyway).

So…no more McDonalds?

Um, no. Nothing cooked, canned, bottled, or prepackaged. Raw foodists eat fruit, vegetables, sprouts, nuts, seeds, grains, and sea vegetables. The recipe potential is surprisingly mindblowing.

WHERE IS YOUR PROTEIN, WOMAN?

The WHO (World Health Organization) says humans need about 5% of their daily calories to come from protein to be healthy. The USDA puts this figure at 6.5%. On average, fruits have about 5% of their calories from protein. Vegetables have from 20-50% of their calories from protein. Sprouted seeds, beans, and grains contain from 10-25% of their calories from protein. So if you are eating any variety of living plant foods, you are getting more than adequate protein. Numerous scientific studies have shown the daily need for protein to be about 25-35 grams per day. So if you ate 2,000 calories per day, and ate raw plant foods that had an average of 10% of their calories from protein, you would get 200 calories worth of protein, or 50 grams. This is more than adequate to support optimal well-being.

Also, cooking protein makes about half of it unusable to the human body. So raw plant food protein is even a better source than cooked plant foods or animal foods. There is still a huge, foolish, misguided idea that plant protein is not “complete”. This is based on studies done on rats in the 1940′s. This false conclusion was drawn before we discovered the bodies protein recycling mechanism and its ability to “complete” any amino acid mix from our bodies amino acid pool, no matter what the amino acid composition of a meal consumed. This false idea is still perpetuated by the meat and dairy industries, in an attempt to influence people to continue consuming their truly health destroying products.