goin' raw

So, yesterday was the official start up of my raw foods diet. I feel like my current situation is allowing me to easily transition away from the handful of non-raw items that I’ve been eating (which mostly includes quinoa, brown rice, whole wheat wraps, and the occasional vegetable sauté) to a fairly ‘strict’ raw diet. And so brings up a two-fold question:

1) What exactly is ‘raw’? and
2) Why eat raw?

(from Wikipedia.com)

Raw foodism is a movement promoting the consumption of uncooked, unprocessed, and often organic foods, as a large percentage of the diet. A raw food diet consists fully of foods which have not been heated above a certain temperature. The maximum temperature varies among the different forms of the diet, from 92ºF to 118°F (33°C to 48°C). Raw food diets may include a selectıon of raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds (including whole grains), eggs, fish, meat and unpasteurized dairy products (such as raw milk, cheese and yogurt).

A raw foodist is a person who consumes primarily raw food, or all raw food, depending on how strict the person is. Raw foodists typically believe that the greater the percentage of raw food in the diet, the greater the health benefits. They generally believe raw food prevents and/or heals many forms of sickness and many chronic diseases.

So why would I choose to eat like this?

Well, personally, it’s been a process of evolution. Over the past eight months I’ve been focusing on how my body reacts to certain foods. I never really set out to specifically alter my diet for the sake of my health, but I began replacing a lot of the processed things that I was habitually consuming with fresh, (mostly) organic fruits, vegetables, nuts, and whole grains. For quite sometime I’ve been aware of the importance of avoiding things like high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, and trans fats (of course), but I was inspired after my trip to Japan to bring a new level of focus to my diet.

I’ve only been ‘officially’ doing raw for a few days. My previous diet was heavy on cooked quinoa, a rice-like South American whole grain which was a staple during the winter months. I still can eat quinoa by the process of sprouting, although I haven’t been as of yet. Salads with veggies, nuts, fruits, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, and nutritional yeast (providing B vitamins that most vegetarians lack in their diets) comprise my main meal of the day. I am still eating a lot of healthy snacks (many directly adopted from Jon’s repertoire) such as carrots with dijon mustard, sunflower seeds and raisins, cacao, and raw honey. I’ve been making a fruit smoothie almost every day for a least the past year but I am going to stop using yogurt and use less fruit. For example, I am testing out a homemade concoction this afternoon that’s comprised of one frozen banana, walnuts soaked overnight, rice milk, and raw cacao syrup (a mix of agave nectar and cacao powder). The effect that the multiple servings of fruit of my previous mixtures has worn a bit thin, as I began to feel tired about a half an hour after my only-fruit smoothies.

So far I’m feeling very positive about going raw. My energy is up and I feel more active and alert than I was even a few days ago. It hasn’t been a drastic change from my previous habits but only a more refined scope of my consumption. I feel that it’s the best time to try this out right now because when I start my job overseas I won’t be able to concentrate as much on my intake.