If I had to give you the single factor that makes the biggest difference in how I feel day to day it would be the amount of raw produce I’m eating.  I’m not sure whether it’s the food itself or the fact that by eating it I’m avoiding less healthy choices (probably a little of both).

What’s so Special About Raw Produce?

Almost everyone probably knows that produce is the healthiest food choice, but you may not already know that it is almost always healthier in its raw, uncooked form.  When I say raw, I am meaning that it has not been cooked or processed.  Produce will retain its enzymes and nutrients as long as it is not heated over 115 degrees.  I still consider frozen food a raw food, although I have read that it loses about 30% of its enzymes in the freezing process (though it is still a healthy food).

Cooking produce affects vitamins, minerals, and enzymes in produce.  Vitamins and minerals are lost when the structure of produce is changed.  When I first bought my juicer, I was surprised to learn that I needed to drink citrus juice right away if I wanted to absorb the vitamin C.  The juicing book I was reading went on to say that vitamin C dissipates in the air very quickly.  I then wondered why anyone bothered to drink orange juice from the carton.  I pulled my orange juice out of the fridge, looked at the ingredients on back, and sure enough, synthetic vitamin C was on the list.  If you look at yours, you’ll find the same thing.)  Juicing the oranges wasn’t even cooking them, so I can only imagine how much is lost from cooking. 

What are the benefits of eating raw produce?

I was once asked to teach a raw foods seminar in my yoga studio.  After completing my research, these were the reasons I was able to find for why raw foods benefit the body:

1.       It makes me feel better.   I can give you all the science behind why raw foods work, but it doesn’t mean anything if you don’t feel a difference in your everyday life.  A person who has suffered from advanced KC knows what’s it like when you lose your health that you previously took for granted.  Every health problem I had went away when I started eating a diet composed of mostly raw produce, and I am now hardly ever sick.  Every time I have veered away from fresh, raw produce, I always went back because I just didn’t feel as good.

2.       It improves the quality of the blood.  A diet rich in raw produce results in less toxic matter in the blood.  Consequently, oxygen can be circulated throughout the body more easily.  You can live several weeks without food, a couple days without water, but not more than a few minutes without oxygen.  Cancer is a group of cells that are trying to survive in an oxygen starved environment.

3.       It is the most vitamin & mineral dense foods you can eat.  When I became vegetarian in 2002, I was afraid I’d miss something and religiously logged my diet on www.fitday.com.  I averaged 600-1,000% of the US recommended daily allowances for vitamins A, C & E.            

4.       It is more efficient for your body to eat produce in its raw form.  The live enzymes in raw produce will predigest the food.  It takes 10 metabolic enzymes in your body to make one digestive enzyme. 

5.       It improves digestion.  The fiber in produce acts as a sponge and removes toxic matter in the intestines from the body.  If it is not removed from your body, toxic matter can leach into your bloodstream and circulate throughout the body.  From personal experience, my digestion is not as good even with cooked vegetables as it is with raw foods.  I have found the best produce to eat for digestion is greens because it is high in insoluble fiber, but does not have irritating sulfur, which can be found in the cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, etc.).

6.       It prevents the “killer” American diseases.  I can pick up any general interest magazine and find an article on how antioxidants were found in a study to lower the risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, or fill in the blank with another condition.

7.       It hydrates the body.  All raw produce contain some amount of juice; even nuts are about 20% of juice.  Water is very important to the body so that it can flush out toxins and purify the system.  In the winter, I like to juice grapefruits off the tree in my yard.  I noticed that I was able to get one cup of juice from each grapefruit.  This means that if you eat a few pieces of fruit a day, you will be able to get almost a quart of water without even drinking anything yet.