I bet if you were to ask the average person on the street what they thought eating raw foods meant, you will be surprised at the answers you get. Many would reply back with a common answer that raw food had to do with eating raw meat, and this couldn’t be further from the truth. You may be wondering if this is safe, rest assured that eating uncooked fruits, nuts and vegetables is quite safe given the proper precautions.

Eating raw foods is about vitality, health, choice and enjoying your life, quite simply it is about a healthy lifestyle. I am a great believer of the many delicious things to eat that don’t need to be cooked or boiled or grilled. Nature has supplied us with the perfect nutrition for our bodies!

Some of you might be asking yourself how a raw food diet differs from a vegetarian one. While it is true that both are plant-based diets, only the raw food diet requires that the things you eat not be cooked. There is a very specific reason for this and it has to do with how plant-based foods are structured.

Fruits, veggies, and all other plants are living food and have efficient ’storage batteries’ filled with energy and nutrition. When you apply heat to plant-based foods they tend to rupture and breakdown releasing all of their nutrients and enzymes. By the time you get to eat them, the food has become dead food for it has lost a major portion of their nutritional value rendering them inadequate.

Here is where vitamin supplements comes into play in our diet (which incidentally are mostly insoluble and are discarded, this is why urine changes color after ingesting them) to make up for these deficiencies. Eating raw foods helps to maintain the optimum levels of nutrients found naturally in all plant-based foods. The nutrition found in raw foods is completely usable and efficiently dispersed throughout the body due to our eating ‘live food’.

It is actually easy to incorporate raw foods in your diet. Search online for raw food websites which will give you all the information you’ll need to begin. Infact, there are plenty of message boards or forums dedicated to eating raw food diet with plenty of people ready to share their experiences and helpful advice. Also, check out your local bookstore or library to find raw food cookbooks that are chock full of easy and delicious meal ideas!

Last but not least, get your creative juices flowing - come up with your ideas and customize your own dish to make it a part of your meal.

Diet Info Care Tip: When you next visit a fast food joint, it would be a good idea to either buy from the supermarket or bring along a tub of your favorite raw veggies to go with your meal.

HERE’S WISHING EVERYONE HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!

During the recent Lunar New Year or Spring Festival, I have come to note that the food we eat does have an effect on our overall health, mood and well-being. Food can make or break your life. Most people do not realize how much good or damage the food that they consume can do to them. I really feel it is important that we need to pay attention to what we eat to ensure we will be in good stead for a long time to come.

Benefits of healthy eating to our health and overall fitness are many. When our body does not receive its minimum requirements in the correct proportion, it is sure to upset not only our mood but also our overall health and fitness. Whether knowingly or unknowingly, you are sure to be in a grumpy mood all day long if you do not eat right, of which I have been experiencing recently.

Therefore, a good quality of life throughout is one of the benefits of healthy eating. This is key to realize that the quality of life is very important to each one of us. When we have age by our side, our body may not show drastic results of a little abuse. However, prolonged abuse of the body in terms of eating oily food, junk food etc makes it very unhealthy. Over a period of time like any machinery that is not taken care of, your system will also crash. With advancing age, this can greatly affect our quality of life making it very difficult to go on with daily activities on our own.

However, bear in mind that the benefits of healthy eating are not visible within a day or two, but when the results begin to show, the long lasting positive effects that would not only add to your life in terms of years but also improve the quality of your life. Make eating right your key to happiness in life. Your body is a gift to you and it is your duty to take care of it and ensure that it is kept in the best condition.

Cheers to Healthy Eating & Stay Happy