How a Raw Food Diet Can Help You To Lose Weight

If you are interested in eating healthily and avoid consumerist, highly processed foods and all the various health risks that are associated with them then you might well have heard of something called a raw food diet.

The diet is pretty self explanatory really and follows a pretty simple belief: In the past, before we humans created fire, we were foragers who lived off of all manner of healthy raw foods. From fruits, vegetables, seeds and even fish and meat.

It makes sense really, I mean that’s the stuff we evolved to eat, our bodies are perfectly adapted to process it and as such you would think it is the healthiest possible way to live. Maybe so…

Of course the risk is that raw foods might contain germs and such like that would normally be killed by the cooking process – so if you do try this diet it is important to avoid such risks.

If you choose your food carefully though the health benefits are a plenty:

Less Toxins

When food is cooked it changes chemically, for instance, a baked potato contains over 400 more chemicals than a raw one. These are chemicals which our bodies do not recognize and struggle to digest.

Increased Energy

Since (as above) we often digest raw food better, we can more energy out of it, we require less effort to digest it and we are much less likely to go into ‘food coma’ after eating. All of which means that you feel more lively and energetic.

Healthier Weight

Whether you are over weight or under weight; because digestion is easier, your body can manage your blood sugar levels more effectively, which means that you find it easier to eat when you need to, but your appetite is managed more effectively so that you are less inclined to snack or overeat.

The result is that overweight people tend to lose weight and underweight people gain it.

How To Make a Raw Food Diet Work

Of course by far the biggest challenge is fitting such a diet into your lifestyle. At home it’s easy enough, but it is not socially normal and that is where most people fall down. Also, you might not be prepared to give up things like pizza or a fry up.

In reality though, most proponents of the raw diet don’t eat 100% raw food, they instead try to eat raw food where practical but allow themselves some healthy cooked food too where necessary or desirable.

So no matter how far you want to go you can easily make you and your family a healthier bunch just by checking out a few interesting raw food recipes and trying to make your diet less reliant on the cooker.

Try making your main evening meal a raw meal 3 times a week and see if you can see the health benefits!