Eating raw foods is natural. Our bodies thrive on all that is fresh and vital. A raw food diet (or increasing the amount of raw food that you eat) is bound to bring a feeling of increased wellbeing.

Raw food diets are based on unprocessed and uncooked plant foods, preferably organic, such as a variety of fresh fruits and vegies, nuts, seeds, grains, dried fruit, fresh juices and purified water.

<b>Why Raw Foods?</b>

Basically a vegetarian diet, the raw food diet promotes eating and drinking ?living? foods. Living foods and juices contain the maximum amount of fibre found in raw produce, fibre that can be lost in processing. Such foods are easily metabolised and tend to be lower in calories than the average diet.

Heating food above 116

Who doesn?t like Saving More Money? If you?ve recently gotten interested in the raw food diet and lifestyle and are trying to find more ways to save money doing it, here is a collection of money saving tips for you.Finding a way to make this diet sustainable for you and your wallet is probably one of the most important factors in making it work for you. The other two factors are that you have to make it fun and healthy/balanced!

Invest in a dehydrator and make your own chips,crackers,cookies,dehydrated nuts, etc.A good idea would be to copy down the ingredients of packaged raw food snacks and make your own version of them at home.It can be more fun this way and you can make enough for some friends too.

Additional Book Options : You can organize a book exchange with some other health-conscious friends. Or you can buy those books you know you want for your personal collection from an online bookstore.Buy your supplements online and preferably in bulk, if possible.If you don?t need or want that much product, create co-ops with your friends, buy in bulk, and split the shipping.Make your own beauty products out of the foods you now have in your kitchen.

Make and Exchange Food with friends in order to try out new recipes and Save on Money and Time : Either make raw food recipes in big batches and share among friends, or organize your own potluck and invite some friends. To make it easy on them, you can give them some easy recipes to choose from or direct them to one of the many raw food recipe websites online.

Buy Used Kitchen Equipment : Check online, at local health food stores on the notice board, or ask your friends and family if they have a food processor, blender, or juicer they don?t use that you could borrow.

Always search several websites online for the best possible price before buying online (especially supplements). It?s usually the same product online versus at a raw food restaurant or health food store.Make your own Rejuvelac and/or Kombucha if you can. Do a search online for ingredients and instructions. It?s very easy and economical to do. It could save you money on Probiotic supplements as well.Sprout your own sprouts. Each tray of sprouts will only cost you about .20-.30 cents each and $4-5 dollars at the store.

Shop where the Organic Food is most Affordable First : Buy whatever good organic food is available at the farmers market or smaller produce stores before going to the big chain natural food store. Then figure out your menu or recipe ideas for the week, based on what you have to work with in your fridge.

Buy all your spices and nuts, seeds, grain, and dried fruit in the bulk section of your big chain natural food store. Because you?re not paying for the packaging, it?s a lot less expensive.If available, buy mint, basil, rosemary and other fresh herbs in the bulk section of the natural foods grocery store for substantial savings.

Years ago, if you told someone you were only eating “raw food,” or that you were on a “raw food diet,” they probably would have assumed that you were a blood sucking vampire. But today, with society being a lot more knowledgeable about the benefits of eating raw foods, those same people would likely pull up a chair and trade raw food weight loss tips with you.

If you’re interested in weight loss with a raw food diet, take a look at the FAQ below and see if it is a good fit for you and your lifestyle.

What is raw food?

Raw food dieting is a life styles choice, and it has absolutely nothing to do with eating cold, bloody lamb shanks with dry pasta. Instead, it’s a diet that centers on unprocessed, organic plant foods eaten in their natural form. Advocates of the raw diet lifestyle believe that consuming foods in their natural form gives the dieter access to the full benefits of the food’s enzymes and nutritional value, which is otherwise, believed, lost once they are cooked.

Why is raw food good for weight loss?

It’s good because the diet is extremely fruit and vegetable based. That means that your fiber intake will skyrocket and it will also mean that you cut out processed food, junk food, complex sugars, alcohol, and a lot of other stuff that encourages weight gain. By changing the way you eat and incorporating raw foods more into your daily diet, your body is going to be able to get rid of all the toxins and excess fat you’re carrying around.

So… everything is, like, cold?

Not necessarily. You’re not eating straight out of the fridge—unless of course you want to. You can allow refrigerated foods warm to room temperature, and you can warm up foods to no more than 104 °F (40 °C). Any hotter than that, and you won’t be getting the full nutritional content that the food has to offer. You can also have some herbal tea, or pair hot spices like cayenne and garlic with your meals to warm them up.

Is it just about eating a plate of uncooked vegetables for every meal?

Absolutely not! Well, not unless you decide to extricate guacamole, lasagna, cheesecake, smoothies, and pancakes from your diet. Raw food diets are enormously popular, and there is no lack of delicious recipes you can use to create amazing meals that won’t leave you hungry, or dissatisfied.

How do I get started on a raw food weight loss plan?

Well, there are a couple of ways you can start. You can throw out everything in your house that’s not raw and replace it with the food and ingredients you need to make the change. You can gradually eliminate non-raw foods, and work your way to an all-raw diet. You can also choose one day a week to “go raw”, and increase that weekly until you’re eating raw foods seven days a week.

Couple this with some intense cardio, and you’ll be dropping weight in no time.

Fortunately for those of us newly interested in eating organic and raw foods, there are lots of products out there. Natural and organic foods used to be found only in natural food stores, and those could be few and far between. While not as ubiquitous as McDonald?s, there ARE many more stand-alone stores. And the grocery chains are catching on too, with more organic selections than ever before. If you don?t see them in your grocery store, just ask. You?re probably not the only person in your neighborhood who?d like to see more of these options.

Many grocery stores now feature sprouts and other living foods in the produce aisle. Of course, if they don?t, there?s nothing easier to grow for yourself than sprouts!

There are also tons of sites on the Web where you can order raw and living foods. Just do a search on raw foods and you?ll come up with a lot of different places to order the foods you?d like to buy. Many of these sites are also full of useful information, to help you learn about eating raw foods, and help educate you on the specific food values.

What else? Experiment with what you like. Take the time to learn a little about what the different nutrients in foods do for you. A few examples:

Cabbage ? High in Vitamin C; important for healthy cell function
Shitake mushrooms ? contain essential fatty acids and antioxidants to support a healthy immune system

Kale ? Rich in fiber and helps reduce calorie intake with less hunger. We like that!
Barley ? Loaded with niacin, fiber and iron and is important for healthy blood sugar.
Pumpkin ? So rich in fiber and vitamins; helps reduce appetite by filling the stomach with indigestible fibers

Because cooking takes so many nutrients and vitamins OUT of food, you automatically start feeding your body what it needs when you stop cooking food and start eating uncooked, nutrient-rich foods. A raw carrot has exponentially more nutrition than a cooked carrot.

Cooking also alters the chemistry of foods, often making them harder to digest. Why do we have so many digestive problems in this country? Because we?re putting foods into our bodies in a form that we weren?t designed to absorb. High fiber, high water content fresh produce abolishes constipation of the bowels, cells and circulatory system. Obstructions are cleared and blood flow increases to each and every cell in the body. Enhanced blood flow is significant for two reasons: as mentioned above, blood delivers nutrients and oxygen to living cells, and carries away their toxic metabolites.

Obesity is endemic in this country. The diet industry is more profitable than the oil companies. Why? Because the way we eat and prepare our food practically guarantees that we?ll overeat. Psychologists tell us that we overeat because our souls are hungry. But in reality, our bodies are hungry, even though we may feel full. When you start giving your body the nutrients it craves, overeating will cease.

Eating raw foods is a boost to your metabolism as well. It takes a little more energy to digest raw foods, but it?s a healthy process. Rather than spending energy to rid itself of toxins produced by cooking food, the body uses its energy to feed every cell, sending vitamins, fluids, enzymes and oxygen to make your body the efficient machine it was intended to be.

You?ll naturally stop overeating, because your body and brain will no longer be starving for the nutrients they need. A starving brain will trigger the thoughts that make you overeat. The brain and the rest of your body don?t need quantity; they need quality.