What Is Raw Food Diet, Is it right for You

By: Lara Greene
What Is Raw Food Diet? A raw food diet is one where the practice is to eat raw food. Those who follow such a diet prefer eating their food raw as opposed to dead food or food processed and packaged in machines. Raw food has been man’s diet from the beginning of time. In fact it was man’s first and only diet for a very long time. Humans had to eat raw berries, fruits, nuts and kill animals to eat their meat for their meals. As time grew man’s diet started becoming more and more complex. Various additions were made to the diet. This was done not only to make the process of making food and consuming it more a convenient one, but also to make it taste better. It was out of this that preserved and packaged food, as well as fast food, became extremely popular. However, a recent trend has been observed where by human beings are trying to shift to simpler kinds of foods once again. The rapid increase of complex diseases, most of them arising out of unhealthy eating habits, has lead to this change. This realization that correcting one’s eating habits can grow a long way in helping control the outbreak and spread of several diseases has been an important step. A raw food diet, therefore, has more to do with a change in lifestyle. As people grow more and more aware of an alternative diet, a large number of books, magazines, internet sites, forums, etc have come up in order to collect and disseminate information about the latest trends in this kind of diet. The entire purpose behind propagating and following a raw food diet is to consume food that has its enzymes still alive. Raw food theorists believe that there are several enzymes present in food which are useful and healthy for the human body, but which invariable get destroyed one the food is processed, that is to say, either heated by way of cooking it, or even chilling it beyond a particular point, or using chemicals on them to preserve food for a longer time. Like all systems of practice this one also comes in its various variant forms. There are some raw food theorists who like to believe that raw meat should also constitute a part of their diet as it would give them the much needed protein that they would not otherwise obtain from any other kind of food. There are others, on the other hand, who abstain from consuming meat and rely only on raw vegan food like berries, fruits, vegetables, nuts, etc. Some theorists also go to the extent of having their milk raw as pasteurizing would mean destroying elements in them useful for the human body.