Raw Foods Tips

Raw food diet and anti-aging

A raw food diet has its benefits. Consuming most food items cooked but a few raw can help in getting the right amount of all the essential nutrients. Before changing one's diet, one must always consult a conventional doctor. Find out from a doctor if one's existing diet is inadequate and if so, what food items should one consume raw to make up this insufficiency. WARNING: Meat should never be consumed raw as it contains worms which can cause even brain diseases.

The food that we consume is broken down into more easily digestive units using enzymes. This breaking down of complex food into simple food is also part of the digestive process of human beings. These enzymes can be broadly divided into two groups - exogenous enzymes which are found in raw food and endogenous enzymes which are produced by the human body.

The amount of endogenous enzymes within our body is limited. One can easily go through a life with the available endogenous enzymes but only when the stock of endogenous enzyme is depleted will we also end up 'ageing'.

Aging is related to enzymes. So if one uses exogenous enzymes instead to break down complex food into simple food, one can save a bit of the endogenous enzyme and slow down the aging process a bit. If one gets a lot of exogenous enzymes then one will have to borrow lesser enzymes from other metabolic processes.

These enzymes are mainly produced in the pancreas. The enzymes present in raw food items help in the digestion of that same food item. One can very well survive on a cooked or processed food diet, but this eventually leads to cellular enzyme exhaustion and creates the aging process. This is one of the reasons for going on a raw food diet.

Food, when it is cooked or processed, loses some of its essential nutrients. These nutrients are preserved if one consumes these food items raw. Therefore fruits, some vegetables and other food items can be consumed raw.

Consult a doctor to find out more about which food items should be consumed raw. With pesticides being used in conventional farming methods, it is dangerous to consume some vegetables raw without washing them properly.

Therefore, organic food items are always a better option although organic food items tend to be more expensive than food items grown using pesticides.