Benefits of Raw Living Foods

Benefits of Raw Living Foods

In an age where people have become so much health conscious, it is only natural that they look for more ways to stay healthy and fit. Presently, the growth rate of people following a planned 'Living Food Diet' is soaring. The notion that raw living foods areproviding a number of essential health benefits, has increased its popularity.

What are Raw Living Foods?

Raw living foods are basically foods in their most original or natural, unprocessed and uncooked state. They mostly include vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds. Many raw foodists also include raw eggs, non-pasteurized or non-homogenized dairy products, raw fish and raw meat in their diet. Science asserts that cooking food above 104-120 degree Fahrenheit not only destroys most of the enzymes and other vital nutrients present in the food but, may also lead to the production of toxic by-products.

Thus, a diet that is composed of 75% to 100% raw foods constitutes a healthy living food diet. These foods contain all the essential nutrients and enzymes intact.

Benefits of Raw Living Foods

Some of the important health benefits of consuming raw foods are:

Increases Energy: Raw living foods are abundant in vitamins and minerals. Hence, it supplies us with the much needed energy for all our day to day physical activities. We tend to feel lighter, healthier and happier. Thus the foods acts as an energy booster enabling you to remain energetic throughout the day. You will wake up fresh and early every morning and with great zeal.

Improves Digestion: The fibre and the digestive enzymes present in your daily raw living foods enhance natural digestion besides helping the body to absorb all the vital nutrients. This diet also helps in detoxifying the digestive system to a great extent.

Weight Loss: Since raw foods are high in vitamins and minerals and contain low or zero calories, you will lose weight at a much faster pace than actually possible. Thus, if you are looking for ways to shed those extra pounds, switching to a diet of raw foods is one of the healthiest ways. Furthermore, in the long run it helps in maintaining and stabilizing your weight by keeping away the unwanted fats. Also, the fibre-rich foodswill easily make you full, so you will unlikely feel the urge to gorge on food excessively and / or in between meals. Eating less, as we all know is key to keep your weight under control.

Increases your Life Span: Following a planned diet will reduce the risk of heart diseases, obesity, cancer, high blood pressure and diabetes. It keeps your cholesterol and triglyceride level check, keeps you away from flu, common cold, digestive disorders, heartburn, etc. The intake of raw foods enriches the body with such essential nutrients like potassium, fibre, proteins, magnesium and even compounds like phytonutrients. It also supplements the body with antioxidants and removes the toxins that are stored in the body. All these essential components that come through this kind of diet contribute in increasing your life span by alleviating various illnesses.

Change in Appearance: In addition, a healthy living food diet brings about a marked change in the appearance of all raw foodists (especially women). The skin starts glowing. It becomes soft, vibrant and firm making you feel much younger. Your hair will tend to shine all the more. You will never be affected by acne and other skin diseases.

It is important to note that a lot of patience, time and research are needed before you can start on a healthy raw living foods diet full-fledged. You first need to understand the needs of your body while planning. As a starter, you can try with one raw meal a day.

The Dangerous 10 - Top 10 Worst Food Additives

The Dangerous 10 - Top 10 Worst Food Additives

Food additives are substances added during the processing or making of a certain food in order to preserve flavors and freshness and enhance taste and appearance.

Although some of them have been used for centuries, the use of certain food additives is becoming really widespread and some of them are extremely dangerous for your health, I would say toxic even.

I'm not talking about the once-in-a-while consumption of a certain processed food containing additives, which can't harm anyone. I am talking about daily use. Statistics show that the average American spends about 90% of his/her budget on this kind of food; which means that if you open an American fridge or look up on the shelves you'll find tons of canned, dehydrated, artificial or processed stuff, which is extremely unhealthy, and its persistent consumption can cause health problems.

Typically these food ingredients are very difficult to identify, both for the variety of names and codes they're labelled with and the very minuscule fonts used to lists them on the ingredient list.

Here is the list of the top 10 toxic ingredients.

Go get your detective glass and start reading labels!

1) HFCS - High Fructose Corn Syrup

High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is a highly-refined artificial sweetener made from corn starch and found in almost all processed food such as: bread and baked goods, salad dressing, candies, yogurt, soda etc. And according to some studies has become the number one source of calories in the US.

Indeed, its easy handling and cheap cost made it the number one granulated sugar replacement: The amount of refined sugar we consume has declined over the past 40 years, while we're consuming almost 20 times as much HFCS.

HFCS is linked with weight gaining, it increases your LDL ("bad" cholesterol) levels, and contributes to the development of diabetes and tissue damage, among other harmful effects.

Also, recent researches published by the American Association for Cancer Research found that the fructose in HFCS promotes cancer growth, specifically pancreatic cancer.

2) Sodium Nitrate & Sodium Nitrite (NaNO3- NaNO2)

Both of them are chemical compound used as a food additive to preserve and give to cured meats, smoked fish and poultry a nice red pinkish color. Although their purpose seems harmless, these ingredients are highly carcinogen and their consume is linked with gastrointestinal cancer and heart diseases.

In fact, under certain conditions, they can form nitrosamines compounds, molecules that cause cancer in animals and humans.

Also, in massive doses, nitrite - and nitrate, which under some conditions changes to nitrite - can lead to a condition called methemoglobinemia. In our body, nitrites, indeed, have the ability to change the structure of the hemoglobin into methemoglobin: the binding of oxygen to whom results in an increased affinity for oxygen in the remaining heme sites. This leads to an overall reduced ability of the red blood cell to release oxygen to tissue and it may occur in tissue hypoxia.

Can't give up on eating salami, bacon or ham? Choose the uncured ones.Sodium Nitrate is listed under its INS number 251 or E number E251, Sodium Nitrite has the E number E250.

3) MSG - Monosodium Glutammate

Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is a flavor enhancer commonly added to Chinese food, canned vegetables, soups and processed meats. While the Glutamic acid is naturally present in our bodies, and in many foods, such as tomatoes and cheese, the ones exploited by the processed-foods industry is chemically produced through hydrolysis of vegetable proteins with hydrochloric acid to disrupt peptide bonds or by the fermentation of starch, sugar beets, sugar cane or molasses.

The substance produced has the ability to excite our taste buds and make everything taste delicious, which wouldn't be a big deal if it hasn't been shown that high levels of MSG can seriously screw with brain chemistry causing damage to areas of the brain unprotected by the blood-brain barrier.

Food, Friend or Foe?

Food, Friend or Foe?

The subject of food is a wondrous topic for debate and discussion, since food is relevant to all of us. People eat food for many different reasons: nutritional, emotional and even social. Within these motivations is a goldmine of information for raising our consciousness about food. Is food my friend or my enemy? What is driving me to eat? What is my soul hungry for? What do I truly need? Ultimately, what we eat is a personal choice for each of us.

Our food choices and motivations for eating can have a positive or negative effect on our health, especially over time. There is an old saying, "eat to live, don't live to eat." This adage warns us that eating can take over the focus of our lives, rather than choosing to enjoy food as a form of nourishment to fuel our energy.

 When a person becomes obsessed or compulsive in their thinking about what foods they eat, then unacceptable foods may be perceived as "the enemy." Mental judgments about foods can create so much stress in the body/mind complex that they ignite fear in the system, which may compromise the body's immune functioning. Food then becomes a foe rather than a friend. This belief that certain foods are shameful or forbidden can be handled in a more positive way. Consider my friend Leela, who eats for nutritional reasons.

Leela was diagnosed with breast cancer a few years back. She had to have surgery and follow up physical therapy. As soon as she received the cancer diagnosis, she started researching how to improve and change her diet to be more life sustaining rather than eating a cancer-inducing diet. She took responsibility for her future by eating consciously. This new regimen encouraged health and wellness by eating living food. By eliminating sugars, fats, GMOs, meats, dairy and processed foods, and eating fresh organic vegetables grown locally, she came alive again.

 She eats organic food now and takes a myriad of herbs and supplements, drinks life enhancing green drinks, and carries filtered water with her. I have been at a couple of social functions with Leela, and observe her when she cannot get the foods she prefers and instead, has to eat non-organic food. When this happens, I observe her blessing the food and asking for her body to be rejuvenated from it. She allows the light of consciousness to guide her to eat mindfully, rather than worrying that pesticides from non-organic carrots are going to kill her. She laughs and says, "The fear of food is more harmful than the food choice itself, so let's just enjoy it!"

Emotional eating is a common practice for many of us. In this case, food often vacillates between being the best friend or the worst enemy. Emotional eating can include: dieting, over-eating, under-eating, bingeing, purging or eating compulsively. During times of stress, food may be the one friendly comfort that is available and handy. However, using food as a tool to numb our feelings doesn't enhance our wellbeing. It may lead us into a cycle of restricting food through the week only to binge on pizza and rice dream over the weekend. Instead of food being a friend and healthy companion through our lives, it becomes the enemy that must be defeated. Consuming food rather than dealing with uncomfortable emotions is a pattern that we can change over time. Eating mindfully starts by asking, "What am I truly hungering for?" Maybe a walk and a talk are more aligned with our emotional wellbeing.

How about social eating? Eating in restaurants with friends is a frequent social activity. Since healthy choices are limited in many restaurants, these times call for creative ingenuity to adapt what is on the menu to our particular dietary needs. Some restaurants are OK with this and others frown upon changes to the regular menu. I go to a Thai restaurant regularly with friends and order steamed broccoli and brown rice with a fresh veggie roll, rather than rich, spicy dishes.

 When the food arrives, everyone is happy with the meal they chose and nobody seems to care that I am eating differently. We socialize at restaurants to visit and share our lives with each other. Food is simply the conduit for that to happen. We can choose to order foods that work for us without compromise. This habit has helped me relax around food and eat things that I know will make me feel nourished and alive.

Super Natural Foods

Super Natural Foods

When do natural foods become, super natural foods?

Can Mother Nature's super natural foods cure everything from cancer to hay fever?

Natures foods give modern health consumers everything we need.

A hit of essential nutrients in an edible form (even if it's not always to your taste).

There's also that hint of the exotic which appeals to consumers willing to experiment with peculiar foodstuffs.

It's pretty clear that our appetite for natural foods is becoming increasingly insatiable.

Super Natural Foods - To you and I, it seems that super natural foods are popping up faster than birds infected with the avian flu virus.Barely have you managed to track down a good source of the latest data when it seems it has been superseded by another.

Super Natural Foods - Pomegranates are already yesterday's news.

The latest super natural foods is the wolfberry.

This deep-red, dried fruit is grown in China. It's about the size of a raisin and tastes like a cross between a cranberry and a cherry.

It's a small powderkeg of goodness, containing 500 times the amount of vitamin C by weight than oranges, with even more antioxidants than pomegranates, and it is the richest source of beta-carotene of all known foods.

Wow, how's that for a heavy hitter?

Super Natural Foods - Recent research has found that wolfberries, also called goji berries, significantly reduced blood glucose levels, bad cholesterol and triglycerides (fatty acids in the blood stream that lead to heart disease, diabetes and weight gain).

Meanwhile the journal International Immunopharmacology has reported that wolfberries had a significant effect on the size of cancer tumours in mice.

Further research in China has found the fruit to be effective in preventing the growth of leukaemia cells.

Chinese studies also suggest that wolfberries have anti-ageing properties.Super Natural Foods - perhaps if the wolfberry isn't appealing, you could opt for maca.This addition to the super natural foods group is a root vegetable, sort of like a sweet potato but sold in the West as a powder.

It's been dubbed "natural Viagra", with double-blind trials suggesting that it improves sexual desire, sperm count and sperm mobility.

Super Natural Foods - then there's hemp oil, one of the richest sources of essential fats.

Hemp oil plays a key role in our brains function, reproduction and food metabolism, also in ailments such as heart disease, Alzheimer's, cancer and arthritis.

This oil is also a good source of GLA, which is believed to help in the treatment of pre-menstrual tension.

A recent study published in the Journal of Dermatological Treatment, compared dietary hemp oil with topical treatments for dermatitis and significant improvements were noted in the group taking the hemp oil.

The problem with our super natural foods list is that the foods themselves are often expensive and can be hard to come by.

Super Natural Foods Update - The humble broccoli stalk no longer quite cuts it in the "new" super natural foods category.

It seems the more far-flung the source, the more we love it.

More importantly, there is no single authoritative definition of what makes foods "super" natural.

Ask your doctor which super natural foods will work best to combat heart disease, alleviate osteoarthritis or normalise the pH of your stomach or prevent cancer (claims all being made for the pomegranate) and chances are you'll get a blank stare.

We believe that foods become "super" if they are nutrient-dense and capable of combating serious disease and restoring our body.

Super Natural Foods - There are over 200 fruits and vegetables that have already been called superfoods or are awaiting the necessary publicity -- such as the strawberry which, it appears, is going to be this years blueberry.

Super Natural Foods - A true super natural food provides the most concentrated, usable form of nourishment to cells which govern our immune systems, our hormones, our weight and our ageing processes.

It's important we not rely on a single super natural food and expect it to achieve wonders.

Many can only be eaten or taken in small quantities.

They do provide extra help, but the most important path is to maintain a varied and healthy diet.

Super Natural Foods - The British Nutrition Foundation agrees.

While acknowledging the benefits of less common super natural foods such as bee pollen and sea vegetables.

The key message is that a wide variety of the less expensive fruits and vegetables is necessary to keeping us all healthy.

Super Natural Foods - What identifies super natural foods comes down to who you ask.

A nutritionist is more likely to opt for natural foods that are the most nutrient-packed and most easily digested.

A doctor might list those fruits and vegetables that have been subjected to the most scientific research. Among the recent being broccoli, which is rich in isothiocyanate and sulphoraphane.

These are substances that are believed to help the body fight cancer.

Any fruit and vegetable will help your health and the more the merrier.

Super Natural Foods - According to a recent study in the medical journal The Lancet, reports that there is strong evidence that we should eat more than five servings a day of these foods if we want to maximise our protection against heart disease and stroke.