The Raw Truth
Recently, I proposed the idea of Raw Wednesday on my food blog along with my friend, Gena, a food blogger who actually is 100% raw. I’m not raw by any means, or even vegetarian for that matter, but I am into healthy food and like to keep my diet as minimally processed as possible. Plus, more raw fruits and veggies never hurt anyone, right? Raw Wednesdays were to go like this: every Wednesday in the month of May my readers were supposed to eat one complete raw meal plus one raw snack. The raw meal could be as simple as a fruit smoothie blended with raw nut butter and almond milk, or it could be more elaborate like homemade nut pate on dehydrated crackers. As the month wore on, I discovered that I looked forward to Raw Wednesdays because they proposed a new challenge to my typical daily eating patterns. I got to try new things (raw pizza dough for one!) and noshed on tons of green smoothies, raw veggies and raw almond butter all day long.
Of all the questions I get about the raw food diet, protein intake is the number one. I’ll admit I’m not an expert on the subject but my advice is this—do what your body tells you. I know, personally, I could never eat all raw. I just couldn’t. I LOVE a big bowl of hot cooked oats in the morning or pasta at night. The thought of veggies all day long rather makes me grimace and rightly so! I’m a foodie in the true sense of the word and always on the hunt for the latest and greatest. Raw foodists tell us that protein does not matter because if you consume food in its purest, unadulterated form, you are getting the benefit of the live and active enzymes which turn into amino acids in the body. They say that the body does not need protein, it needs amino acids. For instance, when you eat a steak you are eating protein which your body then has to work hard to break down into usable amino acids. If you eat a carrot you are just consuming those amino acids straight up and your body doesn’t have to exhaust itself to get it. Less energy used equals a better running system. Or at least in theory.
Eating raw does have its benefits. You may love it. Adore it. Never want to eat a cooked meal again. Or you may hate it and your body may revolt against you violently. We are all different with different chemical makeup; the moral of the story is to find what works for you and stick to it!
