Raw Food Diet
A Third Age Diet & Nutrition feature
by our Health Editor

The Raw Food Diet is so much more than a passing fad. It has numerous proven health benefits including increased energy, healthy weight loss and overall improvement to health. The Raw Food Diet is also the natural way to detox!

In addition to its other health benefits, the Raw Food Diet can help to improve skin condition. It can also enhance vitality and aid digestion. Rich in antioxidants, it can also reduce the risk of heart disease and help prevent many other diseases.

The Raw Food Diet has many followers including Demi Moore, Alicia Silverstone, Wood Harrelson and Dr Gillian McKeith. So if you feel the need to diet, detox, or simply adopt a healthier eating plan by getting into living foods, the Raw Food Diet might be worth investigating in your Third Age!

What is the Raw Food Diet?
The Raw Food Diet dictates that at least 75% of your food should be uncooked and unprocessed plant-based foods. The include fresh fruit and vegetables, grains, legumes, seeds, beans, nuts and fruit and vegetable juices.

Why Raw Food?
Raw Foods contain enzymes normally lost during the cooking process. Heating any food above 116 degrees F results in these digestion-aiding enzymes being lost.

What Do You Eat on the Raw Food Diet?
The foods that you eat on the Raw Food Diet are many and varied and include:

•Fruit
•Vegetables
•Herbs & Spices
•Nuts
•Seeds
•Grains
•Algaes
•Superfoods

Benefits of a Raw Food Diet
Because the Raw Food Diet is based on consuming fresh, unprocessed produce, beneficial enzymes are not lost during the cooking process.

Raw Food Diet Tips
A key element of the Raw Food Diet is meal planning. Setting a Raw Food Diet meal plan is essential to ensure a healthy balance of vitamins, minerals and essential nutrients is maintained. The theory behind the Raw Food Diet is that you should endeavour to eat as much raw or uncooked food as possible. If you feel that a 100% conversion to such a ‘living food’ diet is too much for you, then 75% of your food should not be heated above 116 degrees F.