TEN ADVANTAGES OF EATING RAW

by Susan Jorg, Estacada, OR
http://rawfoods.com/articles/tenadvantages.html

The human race learned long ago that cooking meat before eating it
would protect them from certain diseases. Since then this practice of
cooking has grown to include all types of foods and is now considered
an art. Very few meals are eaten which include raw elements, except
for the leafy green salad.

One advantage of eating raw is that it brings Nature’s intentions
into focus. When I speak of eating raw I am referring to fruit, nuts,
and vegetables, which taste good to the majority of humankind in
their basic simplicity direct from tree, bush or vine.

I realize it isn’t easy to simply abandon thousands of years of
tradition and revert back to 100% raw food. Margaret Mead once said,
“It is easier to change a man’s religion than to change his diet.” So
to the point, there are 10 advantages to a diet of fresh, whole raw
fruits, vegetables, and nuts, which may lead you to find a greater
place for them in your diet.

1. Raw foods are better quality, therefore you eat less to satisfy
your nutritional needs. The heat of cooking depletes vitamins,
damages proteins and fats, and destroys enzymes which benefit
digestion. As your percentage of raw foods increases you feel
satisfied and have more energy on smaller meals because raw food has
the best balance of water, nutrients, and fiber to meet your body’s
needs.

2. Raw foods have more flavor than cooked foods so there is no need
to add salt, sugar, spices, or other condiments that can irritate
your digestion system or over stimulate other organs.

3. Raw foods take very little preparation so you spend less time in
the kitchen. Even a child of 5 or 6 can prepare most items for
breakfast, lunch or dinner. This gives children a sense of
self-esteem and independence, not to mention the break it gives Mom
or Dad.

4. When you are eating raw there’s little chance of burns, unless
you’re in the middle of a forest fire or out in the sun too long.
Just think! No burns to tongues, the roof of your mouth, or fingers,
and many fewer house fires.

5. Cleaning up after a raw meal is a snap. No baked-on oils or crusty
messes. And any inedible parts go directly to the compost pile.

6. Eating a diet of raw foods can reverse or stop the advance of many
chronic diseases, including heart disease and cancer. Remember,
cooking creates free radicals, which are the major cause of cancer.
When you lower the number of free radicals your cells are bombarded
with, you lower your risk of cancer.

7. A raw food diet can protect you from acute diseases such as colds,
flu, measles, etc. Raw foods maintain a healthy body and a healthy
body will not become diseased.

8. As long as you combine raw food properly according to the rules of
Natural Hygiene, you will soon reach a level where you no longer
suffer from heartburn, gas, indigestion or constipation.

9. It is environmentally sound. With humanity on a diet of raw foods,
the food industry would close up shop and take up organic gardening.
This would save us enormous amounts of natural resources used to
produce power for these industries. Nuclear power would be clearly
unnecessary. And think of how many trees and oil reserves could be
saved without the need for the paper and plastics used in packaging
our processed foods. There would also be less carbon dioxide released
in to the atmosphere when all the cooking stopped and more oxygen
produced from all the new orchards and gardens, thus helping to
reverse the Greenhouse Effect.

10. Eating raw saves you money on food, vitamins, pots and pans,
appliances, doctor bills, drugs, and health insurance.

So don’t waste your food, yourself, and our planet by cooking what
you eat. Fruits, nuts, and vegetables which are whole, fresh and raw
are brimming with life and have the ability to transmit their life
force directly to you.
BUY RAW NOW!