My reasons for going RAW

I've been asked many times why I choose to be a raw vegan, how I got into this type of lifestyle, and what exactly I can eat.

In a few words, I was eating ethically on a vegan diet - not healthfully. I was eating more grains than my body knew what to do with, ate too many nutrionless soy-based products, and was gaining weight....and significant amounts of it! I just knew there was a better way to eat than this, while still staying true to my animal-product free diet....so I started to research and read a lot. This is when I came across the 80/10/10 diet, and started to include more all fruit or veggie meals into my day....the rest is history!

I found this the other day. 40 reasons to get healthier and eat raw:

40 REASONS TO EAT RAW:

1. Imagine jumping out of bed in the morning feeling totally awake, vibrantly alive & healthier than you have ever felt before.

2. Many people have found relief from ailments and diseases simply by following the raw food diet.

3. Excess weight seems to just melt off your body when you eat a raw and living food diet.

4. By eating a raw and living food diet you can begin to turn back the hands of time.

5. When you eat a raw and living food diet you are feeding your body and your cells with live foods filled with vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and other life giving substances that cooking destroys.

6. Enzymes are destroyed when food is heated above 112 degrees.

7.We need enzymes for every function in our body. To walk, to talk, to breathe, and to move, life itself depends on them. Cooking food kills enzymes.

8. You can eat a whole banana cream pie for lunch.

9. The choices for desserts are so numerous and delicious, and when made from raw and living food, there is no guilt and no need to abstain.


10.The first thing that is lost when you cook something is the water content. Our bodies are between 60% to 75% water. Vegetables and fruits are loaded with water.

11. Cooking destroys 50% of the protein in our food. Between 50 and 80 percent of the vitamins and minerals are also destroyed.

12. Oxygen is lost and free radicals are produced when foods are cooked.

13. There is a huge difference between cooked fats and raw fats.

14. The studies that have been done linking fats to obesity, high cancer rates, heart attacks, kidney failure, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, angina, cardiovascular disease, and all of the other diseases that clog up the blood and the arteries have been done with cooked fats, not raw fats.

15. Raw fats, such as avocadoes, olives, coconuts, nuts and seeds are imperative in a healthy diet. These fats contain antioxidants. They contain oils that help the joints, nerves, and bones.

16. Raw plant fats do not cause the body to gain excess weight because they still contain the enzyme lipase; this is the enzyme that is needed to digest fat.

17. Cooking fats destroy lipase (the enzyme that is needed to digest fat), along with other important enzymes and minerals.

18. If planted, all living foods would sprout and grow.

19. It is very common for people who eat raw and living food to feel a type of "buzz" - a natural, very pleasant high.

20. Raw and living foods are not processed, heated, cooked or altered in any way. They are nothing more than whole foods in their natural state.

21. No diet- including vegetarian or vegan diets - even comes close to producing the healthy, all-over beauty, raw and living food accomplishes.

22. "Live foods produce live bodies; dead foods produce dead bodies."

23. A major reason why a raw and living food diet helps reverse or slow down the aging process is the high levels of certain vitamins, trace minerals and anti-oxidants found in this type of food.

24. Switching to a raw and living food diet has helped so many people feel well and healthy for the first time in their lives.

25. You will experience a markedly improved state of mind and clarity when eating raw and living foods.

26. Within days of beginning this diet, people notice mood improvements. The mental "haze" lifts.

27. Eating a raw and living food diet makes you feel more energized, but also more at peace; more able to focus and concentrate.

28. Your body will reshape and repair itself.

29. Weight loss and healings are "secondary" benefits to this diet.

30. This diet will affect you positively on every level: physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

31. An abused body, once shown some kindness, will work like crazy to become healthy and whole again.

32. As we age, our body's natural source of enzymes becomes depleted and we need to replenish this source through the foods we eat.

33. Cooking makes it harder for our bodies to break up and digest the foods that we eat.

34. Cooked food gets stored in our bodies as toxins, which can lead to all kinds of diseases and illness.

35. The enzymes that are destroyed in cooking food is detrimental in so many ways. Not only does it affect our immune system but also our brain function, and our energy levels.

36. A significant aspect of the aging process is running out of enzymes. Cells stop dividing; our immune system begins to fail. Our enzyme reserve is depleted over a lifetime of eating cooked food.

37. Enzymes are what keep us alive, healthy, young and beautiful and they're never so abundant as they are in raw and living food.

38. We need the antioxidants that are rich in raw and living food to keep our skin, hair, nails, and eyes glowing and healthy.

39. Eating a raw and living food diet helps to ensure a proper acid-alkaline balance in your body. An overly acidic body can lead to acute or chronic diseases. Cooking makes food more acidic. Raw foods are alkaline foods.

40. Just because you are doing something different than the mainstream, doesn't mean you are wrong!

The best reason of all... because it tastes great!