Raw Food Challenge!

I resist, resist, resist (while eating my apples and carrots) and then someone leaves their Cheetos RIGHT-IN-FRONT-OF-MY-FACE. My lying brain says I can have just one. Then half a bag later with orange fingers and a guilty expression I promise myself (yet again) to do better tomorrow.

I've just got to toughen up. Raw does feel better.

You have amazing will power, I did one day of a raw diet and could not go further than that, raw just isn't for me but I applaud you for sticking with it!

I hope someone out there is ready to take the one week challenge.

Find out why it is healthier to turn to natural food before it is too late...
http://www.lifepositive.com/body/holistic-recipes/recipes/rawfood.asp
:happy: A huge golden-brown roasted steak, dripping with butter. Surrounded by finger chips and garnished by a sprig of basil and creamy mayonnaise. The aroma of exotic herbs. Your taste buds tingle. You almost feel the steak melting in your mouth. Yummy, isn't it? But wait! What about the cholesterol you are inviting into your system?

If you are health-conscious and have sufficient will-power, you may push away this delicious picture and go for something more banal, like a boiled salad. But is that really as healthy as it seems?The new mantra doing the rounds is that any-repeat, any-cooked food is avoidable. "In cooked food," says Jehangir Palkhivala, an Indian yoga therapist, "life forces are taken away from the food. Raw food can be consumed easily without exerting pressure on our organs."

And this is only for starters.

Nutrition science is fast gaining the reputation of being a healing and preventive device. Dr Nand Kishore Sharma, a naturopath in New Delhi, India, feels that most diseases are caused by bad food habits. "Unnatural food, which includes any form of food not found in nature, generates toxins that gradually poison the body," he says. From his 'Fireless Kitchen', Dr Sharma gives patients regenerative or natural food for degenerative diseases. This, he claims, has cured many. "I have even seen people grow new teeth and hair at 60 and 70 years of age," he says.

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\What is the Raw Food Diet?

The raw food diet is a diet based on unprocessed and uncooked plant foods, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, sprouts, seeds, nuts, grains, beans, nuts, dried fruit, and seaweed.

Heating food above 116 degrees F is believed to destroy enzymes in food that can assist in the digestion and absorption of food. Cooking is also thought to diminish the nutritional value and "life force" of food.

Typically, at least 75% of the diet must be living or raw.

What are the Benefits of the Raw Food Diet?

Proponents of the raw food diet believe it has numerous health benefits, including:
Increased energy
Improved skin appearance
Better digestion
Weight loss
Reduced risk of heart disease
The raw food diet contains fewer trans fats and saturated fat than the typical Western diet. It is also low in sodium and high in potassium, magnesium, folate, fiber and health-promoting plant chemicals called phytochemicals.

These properties are associated with a reduced risk of diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. For example, a study published in the Journal of Nutrition found that consumption of a raw food diet lowered plasma total cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations.