Our busy lives can sometimes make it difficult to stick to our dieting plans when we\’re trying to lose weight. We\’re either keeping track of our fat intake, our sugar intake, our carbohydrate intake, or our caloric intake. With all that counting, it\’s no wonder most of us become discouraged and \’fall off the dieting wagon.\’ Add to that the surplus of convenient diet foods that are out there that are chock-full of preservatives and additives that we choose when we\’re tired from a busy day and don\’t have the energy or time to prepare a nutritious meal, and we\’re headed down a wrong-way street trying to navigate our way through our weight-loss journey.

Enter the raw foods lifestyle. Not only are raw foods full of the nutrients, vitamins and minerals our bodies need to perform optimally, they provide enzymes for proper digestion, and will also result in the purging of toxins and the cleansing of your body systems. The best part? You can eat as many fruits and vegetables as you like….and you will lose weight.

In addition, the natural high fiber content of most raw foods will help you feel fuller, thereby reducing your food intake. They\’ll assist in turning up the thermostat in your body, helping to melt away that excess weight and nourishing your body\’s cells to continue with the fat-burning process. Most raw foods are naturally low in calories, and obviously much lower in calories, fats, sugars, and carbohydrates than the dieting convenience foods we\’d been reaching for in the past. The added bonus of increased energy, regulated blood sugar and blood pressure levels, sharper vision and improved mental functionality, and you\’ll wonder why you didn\’t become a \’raw foodie\’ earlier in the weight loss and dieting game. And, once you reach your weight loss goals, you\’ll realize how healthy you\’ve become in the process, and the raw food lifestyle will then be your way of life.

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.

www.rawradianthealth.com If you are having tooth sensitivity on a raw food diet– your diet may not be balanced and you’re not taking good care of your teeth! Learn how to reverse any tooth sensitivity and make sure you have a balanced diet. If you are looking for a good teeth cleaner, I recommend Tooth Soap, go to: tinyurl.com FREE Juices & Smoothies Recipe ebook: www.rawradianthealth.com Health & Wellness Coaching http 10-Day Juice Fasting Program: tinyurl.com Acne Program: tinyurl.com Website: www.rawradianthealth.com Blog www.rawradianthealth.com Facebook: tinyurl.com Twitter: twitter.com Donations: tinyurl.com To learn more about the Raw Food Diet and individual, group or donation based coaching to lose weight, have more energy and get healthy, go to: www.rawradianthealth.com

Raw Food Blenders

A crucial piece of equipment one needs to have in your raw food kitchen is a high speed food blender.  This allows you the opportunity to make various raw food recipes such as soups, fruit smoothies, green shakes along with nut milks and butters etc.  In fact you would find it very difficult to commit to leading a raw food lifestyle if you don’t have this crucial piece of equipment in your kitchen.

Those who choose to eat raw foods are looking to create very smooth soups and sauces from fibrous raw vegetables so that they absorb as many nutrients from them as possible.  They will need ways that allow them to break up seeds and nuts completely to allow them to be blended into nutritious shakes and milks with other foods.  In fact they are looking for a blender that is able to meet such exacting demands than normal kitchen equipment can.

Meeting the Demands In The Raw Food Kitchen

When it comes to blenders, raw fooders use theirs every day and will place them under a greater workload than would generally be expected in other households.  Along with being used more frequently, their blenders will be required to carry out tasks that are more heavy duty, for example they will use theirs for blending dry ingredients, frozen fruits and raw vegetables to create smoothies.  It is for this reason that many who have only recently taken up this form of lifestyle will find that their normal blender doesn’t provide the results they desire.  They also don’t work for very long and the blade may disintegrate or the motor blows whilst being used.

If you choose to replace like for like this is going to end up costing you considerably more over the long term as most conventional blenders when given to raw fooder’s life span is considerably shortened.  Therefore in order to achieve the desired results when it comes to raw food recipes and to get a return on your investment when it comes to blender it pays to carry out some detailed research to discover what your options are allowing you to choose much more wisely.

Entry Level Raw Food Blender That Packs Power

If you happen to be someone who may not stick to a raw food lifestyle or your budget is limited then you may not want to consider spend hundreds of pounds on a commercial grade blender.  Is it actually possible for one to start this type of lifestyle when your budget is limited and as a result puts blenders with raw food capabilities out of your reach?

Up until recently the answer to these questions would be no.  Most household blenders wouldn’t last very long when you wanted to follow such a regime and would need to be replaced often.  So over the long term it would cost you considerably more than if you were to by a more expensive model straight away.  However, L’Equip an American health brand has produced a new kind of blender which can produce good results and you won’t end up breaking the bank.

The L’Equip 428 Mill blender is a new kind of blender that’s jug configuration has been altered allow two blades to fit into the drive shaft.  In the jug is a clamp arrangement which incorporates a safety switch ensuring that power is correctly locked down prior to use.  As the name suggests this one can mill dry ingredients as well being more than capable of blending frozen or wet ingredients as you can simply swap the blades.

This certainly cannot achieve the same results of commercial grade blenders, yet the 18000 rpm blade speed is amazing for a blender that will only cost you £99.  As for the jug this looks like the design you find on a food processor and a traditional blender yet still manages to complete the functions admirably well of both these machines.  In a matter of 30 seconds I have seen it decimate dried chick peas and grind grain into flour.  Plus the results it provides making smoothies and nut milks is good and it’s not far off producing smooth raw soups like the larger models.  When it comes to the price, this is pretty much unbeatable and often leaves the conventional blenders found in households smoking after trying to carry out the kinds of tasks that the L’Equip 428 Mill blender copes with efficiently.

Premium Choices

When cost isn’t an issue you can think about going for a big hitting commercial grade blender instead costing anything from £350 or more.  What you need to consider is that this is going to be effectively replacing the cooker in your home anyway so the money you spend on yours doesn’t seem so high.

You can if you want go for the simple commercial grade blenders available but many choose the commercial models that have been repackaged for the home market.  They often come with simple instructions a useful guide and recipe book.  Within the raw food community there are two contenders in the premium market and both are made in the USA.  These are available through VitaMix and Blendtec also known as K-Tec.

But what is offered by VitaMix can leave one confused as this company seems to have a policy where they reskin or rebrand home use blender very frequently.  The one that is most often used by raw food enthusiasts is known often as TNC (Total Nutrition Centre), The VitaMix 5000, The VitaMix 5200, The VitaMix Turboblend and to further add to your confusion this is the same blender with the same motor is also available as part of their commercial range using various names and with various differences to them.

Don’t get me wrong I don’t have anything against VitaMix they are extremely competent powerful blenders suited to meeting the demands of a raw food kitchen.  Yet this is simply them marketing something as innovation.  In fact over the years there has been nothing new about this blender other the name change and new packaging.  It still has some old fashioned appear but there is a great chance of the protruding switches becoming gunged up when food spills over some time and they are difficult to clean behind.  The controls are simple and unsophisticated yet it works which is great but for me the way it is marketed is somewhat dishonest and for that reason I wouldn’t want one.

If I had to purchase a VitaMix then I would opt for the powerful VitaPrep 3.  The VitaPrep comes from the separate commercial arm of VitaMix and so isn’t plagued by the nonsense of sales and marketing as with the home side.  As it is more powerful the VitaPrep 3 doesn’t need to work as hard and so can last longer carrying out the same tasks, but it often retails for around £600.  So if you can afford to this blender is more than you will ever need and can last forever.

I must confess that I do love my gadgets and technology.  But there practical reasons why I would choose the Blendtec HP3A Total Blender over what VitaMix have to offer for the same price.  Blendtec offer real innovations when it comes to raw food blenders rather than providing a new name and box for it.  They have a waterproof touch pad panel the surface of which is easy to wipe clean should you spill anything on it.  Plus it looks far sleeker than the more dated ones from VitaMix.

However when it comes to innovation the motor is full of computerized technology.  Along with the normal pulse and variable speed functions the Blendtec Total has  further 20 separate pre programmed cycles that allow you to ramp the speed on this blender up and down in relation to the task required to be carried out.  So everything required for a healthy kitchen is covered by these programmed cycles yet if you need to it allows you to customize them to create your own cycles as well.

Not only does this remove the guesswork but this one button function means that you are able to do other tasks as the blender can think for itself rather than you having to vary the speed or twiddle with a smoothie stick as with the VitaMix.  Also when it comes to the jug the design used by BlendTec eliminates the need for the smoothie stick and a separate jug for using with dry ingredients.  You could expect to pay around £400 for this machine in the UK.

Today in the UK there is a great selection of raw food blenders as well as commercial models suited for a raw food lifestyle from www.ukjuicers.com.  In fact this is your one stop online shop for every piece of equipment that you need for your raw food kitchen such as spiralisers, blenders, juicers, wheatgrass juicers and supplies, sprouters, sprouting seeds plus much more including dehydrators.