You may have already heard about celebrities and famous people enjoying the benefits of a raw food diet, a diet plan that involves eliminating meat, processed foods and any type of cooked food completely from the daily menu. The raw food diet program follows certain principles and guidelines so that you can still have lots of energy while eating fresh, uncooked foods, and you may even lose weight during the process. Is the raw food diet a good match for you? Here's what you need to know.
Key Principles of the Raw Food Diet
The raw food diet involves eating unprocessed foods, fresh plants, seeds, nuts and other foods that are not heated or prepared in any way. You can follow raw food diet recipes to make unique meals and dishes, but you cannot heat up or cook the ingredients in any way. The idea behind raw food eating is to eliminate foods that may be destroyed by heat; any foods that are heated above 116 degrees F may not have the nutritional value of fresh foods because heat destroys their natural enzymes.
In order to follow the raw food diet plan, at least 75 percent of the diet must include "living" foods, or natural foods. Many raw foodists also follow a vegan diet plan, simply because many vegan foods are already prepared in their natural state.
Some of the most common foods found in a raw food diet plan include:
- Seeds
- Nuts
- Dried fruit
- Seaweed
- Coconut milk
- Purified water
- Fresh juice
- Whole, sprouted grains
- Prev
- Next >>
