Raw food is becoming increasingly popular in today’s culture. People who were used to consuming cooked foods are suddenly aware of the benefits that come with eating raw foods. Questions still remain regarding the amount of raw food required daily for a person to be considered healthy. Not everyone will make the switch to raw food, but I believe that a healthy combination of raw and cooked foods would benefit everyone.
The amount of raw food you consume depends on your specific goals. If you have any form of illness, it is best to consume about ninety to one hundred percent of your diet in raw foods. When you are ill and consume raw food, you decrease your chances of getting all the necessary nutrients that are critical to repairing and restoring the body’s systems. Every time fruit or vegetables are cooked, they automatically lose their nutritional value because heat changes the molecular structure of that food, forcing it to break down. Eating it raw does not change the nutrient content and allows the plants to do their intended job.
If you are a person in moderate health, you should eat 70% raw and 30% cooked foods. Crucial to the effect of raw food is which foods you eat raw and which you prepare. Certain foods such as tomatoes (lycopene), mushrooms (carotenoids), and carrots (beta-carotene) are nutritionally superior when cooked. If you’ve decided to cook broccoli, spinach, and kale, you may not benefit as much as you intended, as these veggies are known to be very potent in their raw state.
If you’re a diehard health fanatic and want to keep your wellness at peak levels, you might want to consider eating eighty percent raw and twenty percent cooked. I am aware that there are people in our society who are one hundred percent raw and fun-loving. If you have the strength to go completely raw I would certainly encourage it. I like to keep a balance in life so I’m more on the 730 side. Sometimes a good vegetable soup can be helpful to break your monotony raw food diet. Vegetables are vegetables, so a soup won’t hurt. Of course, the soup should contain organic ingredients.
Thanks to D. McSwine
