I'm always thinking about the idea of "absolute health"...there has to be some diet out there that is the best possible diet for a human...we have dog food figured out; the same food every day and they get all they need! Why isn't there "human food"? So, I wonder if raw food is the most natural and healthy way to eat. It sounds good on paper, but what do you think?|||Hi! Allow me to share with you my experience with "going raw"... I also think about what is IDEAL when it comes to health and nutrition, too. My curiosity and research led me to where I am now. I became a vegetarian initially because it really does NOT seem very natural to me to eat meat or animal products. Read this article by Milton Mills and really think about some of the reasons he gives.: http://www.all-creatures.org/mhvs/nl-200鈥?/a> My husband and spent all night talking about those exact things one night right before we made the decision to go veg. We had already gotten rid of a lot of chemicals from our lives and were trying to get a little closer to how we felt Nature intended us to treat our bodies; after really thinking about whether we're naturally suited to eat animal products we thought going veg made sense. I spent a lot of time reading different sites and browsing recipe books at the bookstore the first few months. I kept seeing stuff about "raw vegans" and I was really drawn to the idea of raw food. I kept buying raw recipe books and reading about all the experiences of people who have gone raw. It really did sound too good to be true! Again, though, it made sense to me. It just doesn't seem like Nature would intend for us to cook most of our food. I really respect the incredibly complex way that Nature manages to make everything work together so perfectly and I believe that (most)food in its natural state is perfect. Cooking it and adding chemicals to it...it all makes it not perfect anymore. We see this when we boil food and it loses so much of its nutrients to the water or when we heat food and it loses all the enzymes that Nature had to have put there for a reason. I read SO much stuff about raw foods before actually giving it a try. Honestly, I didn't think I could do it. But little things kept gnawing at me, like all the bizarre and elaborate recipes you could do with raw foods (not the most natural way to eat, but the next best thing - some of the recipes just looked so FUN) and things like photos of blood after eating raw food and then after eating cooked food (white blood cells en masse as if our bodies attack cooked food like it was poison!) and all the descriptions from raw foodists about how they GLOWED and had all this energy and were becoming more beautiful and more healthy every day. I was too intrigued and had to give it a shot. I went completely raw right away and stayed that way for about a month. Within the first week I noticed a big change in my overall attitude and energy level. People were commenting on what a good mood I was in. By the end of the month I was seeing that GLOW other raw foodists talked about and my husband even said my eyes sparkled. I felt fantastic. My food was digesting better than ever (I never really thought about digestion until I did it RIGHT and noticed the difference) and I had a whole new appreciation for the tastes and textures of food on a different level. I would say the whole experience touched me on several levels. Do you ever have experiences that just click with you as "right"? So, of course I stayed 100% raw, right? No! Can you believe it? The fact is, it was a lot of work the way I was doing it. I like to prepare complex meals and so I was doing a lot of recipes that involved blending and dehydrating and there were a lot of experiments that turned out awful. I travel a good deal and just didn't prepare as much as I should; eating at restaurants gets old when there's really nothing but salads for you on the menu. My husband was really losing patience with the food I was preparing, too. And we DO get addicted to certain kinds of foods: comfort foods, snacks like popcorn at the movies, real cookies, nice, hot soups. You don't realize how we associate so many different foods with different things in our lives until you do something drastic like go completely raw. Anyway, it got to be a lot of work and wasn't as satisfying as I'd like for me on an emotional level. I started eating soaked and cooked beans more and more often and eventually I found excuses to add more cooked food to my diet until I got to where I am now, which is about 50-75% raw depending on the day. I am a little disappointed in myself because I like to think I can do anything I put my mind to and I KNOW in my heart that raw foods CAN do amazing things for our bodies and health if we consistently make them a large part of our diet. I am going through an especially busy time in my life right now and I keep telling myself that when things calm down a bit I'm going to be better and smarter about my diet. I wish I could have stuck with it all the way, but, alas, no one is perfect. We can try to be, though, and I think a raw diet is a pretty good thing to aim for.|||Maybe not the absolute but it is pretty healthy but it depends on the foods you eat and how much you eat of it because some foods you can handle raw a few times but then they can go bad or get you sick if you don't eat them raw anymore and it depends on the area you live in because there are different foods you would need in that area to live a healthy life.|||no absolutes in health. you are mortal, get used to it. and as for having dog food figured out, dogs still chase squirrels, you know what i mean? But that all being said, raw food is definitely very good for you in a number of ways, i think you are probably best off with a varied diet that features a lot of raw food than an all raw food diet.|||It does sound good on paper. But what about meats (we are omnivores, after all) - you have to cook meats to kill bacteria that are harmful to us. So who would want to eat nothing but raw fruits and veggies all their lives? And even dairy products are "cooked" in essence when they pasteurize them. They could also contain harmful bacteria without this. I don't think the human species has a strong enough immune system to ward off some of the bacteria in our foods.|||I think the raw food diet is all it's said to be. I have experimented with it on and off for 10 years and the difference is amazing. Check out www. rawfamily.com - I spent a lot of quality time with this family and they are absolutely 100% for real. It is the only cure for diabetes (which I am borderline on) and many other diseases that doctors say are incurable. The only part of it that sucks is that it is EXPENSIVE. You have to be willing to spend about $250 or more a month per person - and that was (and still is) the hardest obstacle for me. Also you have to really focus on green drinks - not just fruit and gourmet stuff like too many people think - and actually dog food isn't perfect nutrition - there's actually a raw food diet for dogs too - google some info on the "BARF" diet (Biologically Appropriate Raw Food, or Bones and Raw Food diet for dogs). Oh - and to Holley who posted before me - the raw food diet does not include meat or dairy - just nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables, and a few other things.... but not animal products.|||no|||we totaly do not have dog food figured out! commercial dog foods range from excelent quality (natura brand, natures recipie, solid gold brand, etc) to absolute rubbish (ol-roy brand, dog chow, pedigree brand etc). the human diet is FAR more complex than the canine diet.... as to raw foods, in certain repects there are benefits to eating foods raw, (veggies, fruits, herbs, etc) and many other foods that should be or MUST be cooked. avoid any guru who promises you "absolute health" he or she is lying or a fool.|||It isn't.That is fallacious.A healthy,balanced diet is what we all require,not just completely this or that. With respect to you,the only people that I've heard insisting that eating ALL raw foods only are usually hippie types(most often their description),who only balance it with illicit drugs.|||No. I don't think it's the perfect diet. However, it's a GREAT way to detox if you do it for a week to a month at a time. I think a whole foods diet is probably the healthiest.|||Without a doubt it's an important part. But health requires vigilance in other areas as well. A raw vege diet with a variety of other nutrient sources like beans (and even some meats like chicken breast, pork loin and whitefish) helps you cover the nutrition bases. Exercise is equally important. No matter what your diet is, a sedentary lifestyle is going to make you unhealthy. Note: For some people exercise is a difficult hurdle to leap. Trust me when I say that when you get off of your butt and exercise you will feel better and have more energy for the rest of that very first day. You will sleep better too. As you ease yourself into a better diet team that up with easing into an exercise regimen. I promise you will feel better.

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