Rev up your cleansing with raw foods and juicing

(info@cleanseyourcolon.co.za). Submitted on Mon, 6 Sep 2010

All nutritionists agree on the benefits of eating raw foods. The only thing they differ on is how much. Dr Bernard Jensen, one of the pioneers in colon health, suggests including 60% raw food in your diet. Need some motivation to implement this? Read on!



Firstly, what is raw food? Raw food is any plant based foods that has not been heated above 47C. A wide variety of food including fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, flowers, leaves, seaweeds, superfoods and sprouts can be eaten this way.

Eating raw food ensures that you get the full nutritional benefit of your food. Cooking can destroy up to 80% of food's nutritional value. Heat sensitive nutrients like vitamin C, the B vitamins and most anti-oxidants are lost. Good, healthy fats are converted into bad fats and trans fats. Proteins co-agulate and the bioavailabilty of protein foods are diminished.

Raw food is full of life giving enzymes! All work done on a cellular level in your body is carried out by enzymes. Large quantities of enzymes are needed for digestion. Eating foods high in enzymes puts less burden on your body to produce its own enzymes and can assist with the digestion process.

One of the key factors in maintaining a healthy bowel is ensuring that you have sufficient fibre in your diet. Fibre provides the bulk that is needed to put enough pressure on the bowel wall to stimulate bowel movement. One of the best forms of natural fibre is the cellulose found in fruit and vegetables. Cooking destroys the fibre in food so that the remaining amount may be insufficient to stimulate the bowels into action.

Raw foods are great for cleansing. The reason for this is that they provide your body with a vast amount of nutrients without introducing toxins. The majority of raw foods, especially green foods, are also highly alkalizing. This helps your body correct its internal pH balance and empowers your body to get rid of acidic wastes that may have build up in your tissues over the years.

Some of the advantages that raw foodists report include: increased energy, clear thinking, improvement in acute-chronic health conditions, improved appearance of hair/skin/nails , loss of excess weight, better quality sleep, improved immunity, stable moods, better stamina in exercise and an increase in the size of your compost heap :)

The easiest way to increase the amount of raw food in your diet is by drinking freshly vegetable and fruit juices daily. Besides being delicious, the nutrients in vegetable juices are easy to absorb and easy to consume. This is particularly valuable for people with digestive troubles. As an added bonus you achieve all of the benefits from eating raw foods listed above.

Motivated? Here is how you can get started. If you are used to eating mostly cooked diet it is recommended that you move over to raw foods slowly. The reason for this is two-fold. Firstly, raw foods are high in fibre and any increase in fibre needs to be introduced slowly to allow your body the chance to adjust. The high fibre content also means raw foods must be properly chewed in order to ensure the break down and proper digestion of these foods. You know you have chewed enough when you tongue no longer feels solid particles in between your food. Secondly, raw foods are very cleansing. If the rate of cleansing happens to fast you may feel discomfort commonly referred to as the ‘healing crisis'. If this happens you can either push through it or decrease the amount of raw foods in your diet.

For delicious, mouth watering raw food ideas that will feed the whole family, along with practical advice, tips, recipes and ‘cooking' courses visit www.superfoods.co.za. Some raw food favourites include raw pizzas, raw pasta, berry smoothies, butternut soup, sushi, essene bread, chocolate brownies, mango cheesecake ... mmm. As this is a new topic for many people we have added some pictures of raw food below to tempt your appetite.

To your health,
Tracy Venter
www.cleanseyourcolon.co.za

 

About the Author

Tracy Venter ( Hons.Biochem. Stellenbosch University )
Website: www.cleanseyourcolon.co.za

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