You RAWk!

If you live in the DC area, then you got to experience some beautiful sunshine this past weekend. Weather likes this puts me in such a good mood – everyone at work can certainly tell you how happy I’ve been since Friday.

The start of spring also makes my body start to crave raw food, interestingly enough. You may or may not know this, but last summer I ate raw for about 50 days, and I felt great! Eating raw during the summer time cools you down, gives you energy, and makes you feel alive! I was fully dedicated to the raw foods lifestyle, until the weather started to get cold. BAM – I started craving brown rice! After that I thought I never wanted to go back to eating raw foods again. I decided that I loved cooked foods too much.

But like I said, it’s starting to get warmer, and all of the sudden I want salad, and fresh raw veggies, and light, uncooked food! Are our bodies intelligent, or what?

So what is a raw food diet? What are the benefits of raw food? Why has my body started to crave them again now that the weather is getting warmer?

Food is considered raw when it is not heated above 118 degrees (this number is slightly up for debate – some people say you have to stay below 104 degrees). A raw foodist is someone who eats anywhere from 75-100% raw foods.

The benefits of raw foods are many, so I will summarize them here for you into my top 3 favorite reasons: 

1. Living and raw foods contain enzymes that our bodies can’t make on their own. Enzymes are essential in keeping your body functioning – they help with everything from digestion to detoxification to brain function and immune health. When you cook food above 118 degrees, those enzymes in your food are destroyed, and you have to spend more energy digesting what you just ate!
2. Raw foods help balance your pH levels. Remember in high school chemistry when you learned about acid and alkaline substances? You may have slept through that lesson, but it’s important to know now that your body has a pH level too! Your body functions best when it is slightly on the alkaline side. When you’re too acidic, you can experience symptoms like a runny nose, heartburn, inflammation, arthritis, poor circulation, chronic fatigue – even cancer! Eating raw foods will keep you on the alkaline side and help you avoid all those nasty-sounding health problems!
3. Raw foods give you energy. When your body is functioning more efficiently and digestion is easier (see point number 1), you have more energy to spend on other things! When I was on a raw food diet, I found that I needed less sleep, could exercise harder, and stay at work longer before I got tired. And who doesn’t want more energy?

But why do I want raw food more now that it’s starting to get warm? Our bodies are intelligent machines, and they are programmed to eat seasonally. Raw foods help cool down and hydrate your body, which feels great when the weather’s hot! Raw foods also help detox your body, which our bodies naturally want to do in the spring as well.

Want to know more about raw food? I’m in the process of putting together a raw food preparation and detox program, so keep an eye out for more information on that in the coming weeks!