Raw, living food like fruits and vegetables are a vital source of enzymes and life energy. When food is cooked (heated above 120 deg F), many of the enzymes and life-giving nutrients are destroyed. Living foods contain much more energy than when they are heavily cooked. Generally the principle behind raw food is that we need to eat foods which GIVE US energy, not foods which deplete our energy.

Highly cooked and processed foods TAKE energy, and strip nutrients OUT of the body during the digestive and assimilation process. Good raw food should nourish and feed the body and not take more energy than it provides. Raw food contains vitamins and minerals in synergistic amounts that scientists do not yet understand. Furthermore, it is most probable that science has still not yet identified many other nutrients found in fruit and vegetables. One day there may well be a Vitamin J!

Most importantly, raw food contains life energy while most cooking and processing procedures damage this fundamental energy source. Extraordinary natural foods exist in nature which contain very high levels of nutrients. These could be called superfoods. They include many seaweeds, (dulse, kelp, kombu), wheatgrass and barleygrass, orange and lemon peel, beetroot and spinach leaves, bee pollen, chlorella, spirulina and many other green vegetable leaves. These can be often bought in powder form, good ones are dried but NOT heated. Superfoods and uncooked foods have a life force energy in them which have healing properties.

There are many foods which appear healthy because they contain fruit or vegetables, but in fact they are not supporting optimum energy levels because they have been cooked or processed. Below are some common examples:

-100% Fruit juices bought in shops or any kind if they are packaged. No matter what they say on the labels (even ones without sugar or anything added), they WILL have been flash heated to preserve the juice and kill bacteria, destroying many of the nutrients and enzymes. They give you nowhere near the same nutrients as fresh juice made from organic fruit.

-The same applies for tinned and packaged soups, fruit and vegetables.

-Be aware that healthy foods such as packaged salsa, hummous, many sauces and guacamole will all have been through a heating and preservative process, even these foods are best made at home if possible.

-Fruit and vegetables in superstores will have been stored, sometimes for months in cold storage. This seriously depletes foods of their energy and nutrients. Organic fruit and vegetables are better from these stores, but you can detect a noticeable difference in organic fruit and vegetables that were picked just the week before, so an organic delivery service is recommended if possible.

As you can probably sense, there is a certain level of commitment, time and planning required to
eat a truly optimum diet. If there is only one thing you do to change your diet, it is having up to three raw vegetable or green juices per day, made from fresh, unprocessed produce.

All herbs and mild spices are great ways to enhance natural raw foods.

If you do cook vegetables, lightly steaming them is best. Sometimes this is necessary when vegetables may be hard to digest raw. For example, vegetables in the cabbage family (cabbage and broccoli) are best lightly steamed. You can juice these vegetables if you so not want to cook them, but have difficulty digesting them.