raw food diet Archives -

What is Detox really? It’s probably not what you think!

When people first learn about healing their bodies and the concept of “Detox” or Regenerative Detoxification or Cleaning your Inner Terrain, there is often a confusion about how the process works.

We often think that, if we apply certain substances to the body, then we can detox our bodies.

We get sold on this idea with people marketing Detox Drinks, Liver Cleanses, Herbs, Tonics and even the idea that various foods Detox the body.

This is simply not true.

There is nothing that can be applied to the body to detox the body.

Only the body can detox itself.

This is so important to understand.

The body takes all of the actions.

What we can do is put the conditions in place to lift enough burden from the body that the body is able to initiate the detoxification mechanisms.

This is where returning to the biologically appropriate diet for your species comes in.

This is why Fruits and Greens lead to healing.

Not because the Fruits and Greens are detoxifying the body, but because they are putting the conditions in place for the body to heal itself.

Fruits lead to detox but do not create detox.

Fruits are removing the burden of digesting heavy slow digesting foods which drains our energy.

Fruits are high in water content, allowing the body to hydrate the dry lymph fluids (our bodies sewer system).

Fruits leave no additional waste for the body to clean up after.

Fruits provide clean essential sugars to fuel every bodily process.

Fruits create a positive energy balance. Giving more energy than they take away.

This is also why Water Fasting is such a powerful tool in healing. When we water fast, when we abstain from all food for an extended period, the body is able to shift all energy from digestion to healing. Every ounce of energy that was being put into the massive digestion system is shifted to cleaning and repair.

Healing is all about energy.

“Life should be built on the conservation of energy.” – Herbert Shelton

Each detox process the body initiates drains our nerve energy. Each digestion process also drains our nerve energy. Each toxin we ingest drains our nerve energy. We have a finite amount of energy available in our lifetimes. If we continuously drain this energy by misfeeding ourselves on toxins, difficult to digest high protein foods, foods that deposit a lot of waste or keeping our bodies in a state of constant stress with stimulant foods and beverages and stressful lifestyle choices, then we run down our energy banks and the body cannot gather enough energy to run a detox process.

If we put in harmacuetical drugs or natural remedies and even spices and “medicinal foods” like garlic, honey, ginger or turmeric, we are adding to the bodies burden. These foods and drugs which stop the cleaning symptoms are not helping our health. They are damaging our health. They are adding to the burden on the body and draining our energy tank.

If a product is used to stop pain, stop inflammation, stop a cold or a flu then you know this product is harming your health, not helping it. Pain, inflammation, colds, flus, expulsion symptoms, rashes are all the body ridding itself of waste. Using that precious nerve energy to detoxify your body.

When we stop these processes we not only add more waste burden to our bodies AND stop the body from ridding the waste it was just eliminating, BUT WE ALSO sacrifice that nerve energy that the body worked so hard to store up.

Think of each decision as an addition or subtraction of your precious finite time. Each meal, each remedy, each drug is a drain, a subtraction of that time.

Some subtractions are unavoidable, we live in a toxic world. But most are avoidable and should be saved for when the body needs to create a detox program.

So choose those foods which help put the conditions into place to allow the body to clean and heal.

Avoid those products which are marketed as detoxing your body, because only your body can detox itself. Take some solid food vacations from time to time (Juice feasting or Water Fasting). Eat your biologically appropriate foods, Fruits and leafy greens. Avoid those foods which take many hours to digest and steal your precious energy stores.

You are an energetic being.

You are a miraculous, self healing machine.

Learn how to put the conditions into place for your body to heal itself.

Then sit back and watch the magic happen.

Learn more about our miraculous healing bodies, start here: What is Healthy?

Detox is not something we do to our bodies, it is something our bodies do to us.

Why I chose a Raw Foods Diet to heal

Most Disease is just our body trying to survive us poisoning ourselves

As Americans, we have spent most of our lives eating the Standard American diet of meat, cheese and heavily cooked vegetables. This makes it hard to imagine eating only raw plant based foods. As such, many people feel overwhelmed just at the idea of change.

Accomplishing the transition to a healthy diet feels like such a drastic change that most people become overwhelmed at the thought of it. Often quitting before they even begin and often letting their health suffer instead. But it doesn’t need to be overwhelming. We don’t need to live in fear of disease.

Why Choose Raw Food?

I will start by saying that my personal journey to a raw foods centered diet did not happen overnight. Most people who transition to a Raw Foods centered diet, do so gradually, as they become more educated about nutrition and food choices. However there are many people, particularly those who are already sick, who choose to jump right in to Raw Foods 100% from the start.

I had been a vegetarian for a large part of my life, since 1992, but by no means a healthy eater. For most of my Vegetarian life my diet focused on Bread, Pasta and Cheese with the occasional Veggie “meat” convenience foods.

In 2011 I transition to a Vegan diet, but this was not much of an improvement to my diet. I simply swapped the Cows Milk cheese for oil based “Vegan” Cheeses and the junk food for Vegan versions.

However I did feel a dramatic benefit from just removing dairy from my diet. This benefit was reinforced if I accidentally ate something without realizing it had dairy in it. I felt so sick after eating just these tiny amounts of dairy that it really reinforced how much impact just one wrong food can cause on draining our health away.

However, my Vegan diet was still very Starch heavy, cooked food centered and included very little fresh fruit. I was still tired all the time, depressed and feeling and looking old well before my time.

So I began researching nutrition more heavily. Nutrition has interested me since I first read the books Diet for a New America and Never Be Sick Again shortly after college. So I knew there was a better way of living, I just had to find it. This research led me eventually to the Raw Food, Fruit Centered Diet, and while the transition was not always smooth, I can say confidently that it was worth every moment.

Benefits of Raw Food and Why I choose Raw Food still today

Here are some of the benefits that I have seen from my transition to a Raw foods diet.

I Lost 40 lbs over the course of about 6- 7 months, effortlessly, and without ever feeling hungry or deprived and without joining a gym. (My primary exercise comes from walks and hikes with my dogs and gardening.)
My physical endurance has increased astronomically, I feel like an athlete now, something I have never felt in my life.
My self confidence is greatly improved. I wake up happy, grateful, joyful and full of energy.
Cavities in my teeth have begun to repair themselves.
My joints no longer ache and I recover quickly from strenuous hikes, bike rides and other exercise.
My complexion has cleared up, my skin looks brighter and younger and my hair is extremely long, shiny and healthy.
I have abundant energy from morning to night.
My sleep has improved drastically. I no longer have insomnia or restless nights. Waking I spring from the bed ready to tackle the day.

The list of changes could cover pages so I will stop here, but overall I feel amazing and that is what keeps me motivated. That and the food is delicious and I can eat as much as I want.

What has kept me on the Raw Foods diet is realizing just how bad I feel when I eat cooked and processed foods. It took several months to detox all of the junk, but now I can’t believe that I let myself go on feeling so tired all the time.

You aren't "getting sick" you are being poisoned.

The craziest part though, at the time I was eating cooked foods, wheat and cheese, I had no idea how bad I felt. It wasn’t until I started eating a natural biologically appropriate human diet and started to feel really good that I even realized that I was feeling so bad before. If you have never felt this good before you have nothing to compare it to.

If you have eaten cooked foods and science projects your whole life, like I had, you have no experience of what eating vibrant foods feels like. You have no idea how much you are actually suffering. So it wasn’t until I started nourishing my body that I truly understood how weak and sick I was. I just thought it was normal to feel that way.

So this is Why I choose Raw Foods. I can not emphasize how important real food is to our health. Try Real Raw Food for just 30 days, I can say with the utmost confidence, you will feel better, you will look better and you will live longer. You will never want to go back to eating science projects again.

My Top Five Raw Food Books for Beginners

As a beginner to Raw Foods it is important to have a few references to both keep you motivated and to give you new recipes to try so you don’t get bored or stuck in a rut. So I am providing this list of the Top Five Raw Food Books for Beginners to help you get started. Each of these books I have personally read and used as I started out in my Raw Food Journey. Each of these books offers something different, some are predominantly recipe based and other are more about the science and results behind a Raw Foods Diet. I hope you find these books as helpful as I did on your own personal Raw Foods journey. So here are my personal recommendations:

#1 Twelve Steps to Raw Foods

The first book I recommend is 12 Steps to Raw Foods by Victoria Boutenko. Victoria is probably one of the most well known and respected raw food advocates in the raw food community. She has authored several books on the subjects of raw food and green smoothie nutrition.
12 Steps to Raw Foods – How to End your dependency on Cooked Food is not only an excellent primer on the merits of the Raw food diet from an expert in her field. It is also a highly motivational book. One which I continue to reread any time I am feeling a little weak or just need a mental boost.

In this book, Victoria talks about her own personal journey from debilitating illness to excellent health. Victoria is a mother of three and in the early nineties, her husband was deathly ill, her young son had just been diagnosed with Juvenile Type 1 Diabetes, her daughter had severe Asthma and Allergies and Victoria herself had just been diagnosed with a heart arrhythmia, the same disease which killed her father. The doctors that she spoke with offered her no answers and so Victoria went on a crusade to find the answers and save her family.

In 12 Steps to Raw Foods – How to End your dependency on Cooked Food, Victoria shares those answers in a warm and helpful way. There is no preaching and Victoria’s writing can really take the stress out of the health problems you are facing. So for this reason 12 Steps to Raw Foods is my number one of the Top Five Raw Food Books for Beginners.

#2 Green for Life

The second book on my Top Five Raw Food Books for beginners list is also by Victoria Boutenko. Green For Life is the book that launched the Green Smoothie revolution that has become so popular today.

In Green For Life, Victoria documents the many and varied health benefits that come from eating abundant leafy green vegetables. She documents the science behind this current fad and explains how to take advantage of this often undervalued food group.

Green For Life explains not only the why but the how of Green Smoothie Nutrition with easy recipes, stories from those who have regained their health and even a scientific study. Green For Life is written in Victoria’s easy to read and comforting style which makes it another great book for beginners in raw food nutrition.

The comforting style combined with strong scientific evidence and testimonials make this an easy read with practical advice that any beginner can use right away. So Green For Life is number two on my Top Five Raw Food Books for Beginners list.

#3 Ani’s Raw Food Detox

The biggest hurdle for most beginners to Raw food is the first few weeks of grocery shopping and meal planning.

That is where Ani’s Raw Food Detox comes in. Ani’s Raw Food Detox is a 15 day detox plan which includes meal plans, grocery lists and some great tips for boosting your metabolism and helping your body shed pounds and toxins quickly and painlessly.

This book will set you up for success on your Raw food journey for the long haul. Each week Ani introduces new staples into your pantry and gives you meals for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks that you will continue to enjoy well after the first 15 days.

The recipes are quick and simple, with minimal food preparation skills necessary and there is enough balance of heavy nut based meals and lighter fruit based meals to help minimize cravings that are so prevalent in the first few months of transitioning to raw foods.

So for being a great 15 day get you started plan, Ani’s Raw Food Detox is number three on my Top Five Raw Food Books for Beginners list.

#4 Easy, Affordable Raw

Another hurdle that many people deal with when first starting out on a raw food diet is budget. It is easy to get overwhelmed with all of the decadent recipes and expensive ingredients. And to feel like you just can’t afford to eat raw. So the next book on my Top Five Raw Food Books for Beginners list is Easy, Affordable Raw – How to Go Raw on $10 a Day, because everyone should be able to afford nutritious food.

Easy, Affordable Raw – How to Go Raw on $10 a Day shows you how you can eat amazing nutrition packed raw food all day long for less then the cost of 2 fast food meals a day.

The recipes in Easy, Affordable Raw are not only affordable but they are delicious and attainable. Most of the ingredients can easily be found at your average grocery store, no trip to the health food store required.

All of the recipes in Easy, Affordable Raw are also great for beginners as they don’t include a lot of fancy techniques or odd ingredients. So for making Raw food attainable by anyone, no matter the age, budget, kitchen skills or location, Easy, Affordable Raw is number four on my list of Top Five Raw Food Books for Beginners.

#5 Raw Energy

As a new Raw Foodist having some tasty snacks on hand is key to fighting those detox cravings. So the last book on my Top Five Raw Food Books for Beginners list is Raw Energy – 124 Raw Food Recipes for Energy Bars, Smoothies and Other Snacks to Supercharge your Body.

Raw Energy has an amazing array of cookies, chips, energy bites, bars and smoothies that will satisfy any craving. Most of the recipes are easy to make, but there are also some unique recipes which will stretch your imagination of what raw food can be.

The ingredients in most of the recipes are typical grocery store fare so you don’t need to bend your budget or go searching for obscure ingredients. It is a good way to get to know some unique ingredients without having to spend a fortune to make recipes.

I hope that you found my list of the Top Five Raw Food Recipe Books helpful. If you want to learn more about a Raw food Lifestyle and its health benefits check out Healthy Habits. You can also check out my Raw Food recipes.