SCIENCE BEHIND RAW FOOD

I can tell you right away, your friends and family are going to be highly skeptical when you tell them you are going raw...they are going to demand real answers for the reasons why you would do such an off-the-wall thing. They will tell you that you are crazy. They will worry that you are going to die of undernourishment...they are going to do everything in their power to dissuade you and tempt you and make you fall off the raw-food-wagon!

So be ready.
I wasn't.
I just had a core belief. I had faith.
So when my microbiologist hubby said, "Why?" I didn't have an answer other than, "I want to feel BETTER."

Here's a few reasons why raw food works...

A raw foodist eats between 75-100% live, living, uncooked, unprocessed, organic foods.

Uncooked food is alkaline and nourishes and energizes your body.

Cooked food is acidic, takes longer to digest and eliminate, and allows toxins to build up in you blood stream and tissue. Why? Heating food above 120*F (Some say 145*F) kills the enzymes in food which are there to help you digest them. It also causes chemical changes within the food converting it from alkaline to acidic, which when build up in the body leads to weight gain and disease.

Heating food immediately reduces the number of available nutrients, vitamins, and minerals.
This site compares it this way:
"Your body is actually sort of an alkaline battery, running on electrons. All life-giving chemical reactions only happen when electrons or energy flows between atoms. Cooking or processing causes food to lose electrons - the source of the energy your body needs. Things that are healthy 'contribute" electrons/energy, and are called alkalizing or "reducing." Things that are unhealthy steal electrons/energy, and are called acidic or “oxidizing” (which means to burn up, rust, break down or decay).

Your body is designed to be alkaline, like the battery! Because the pH scale is logarithmic even a fraction of a point can create huge changes to health! One hydroxyl molecule (-OH) in 550 million is enough to make water conductive. In fact, most important processes in your body only work within a very narrow pH range. For example, if the pH of your blood falls to the low end of its normal range (~7.35-7.45), a .10 difference, it could reduce the oxygen levels in your blood by as much as 300%!"

There are also a lot of amazing books on the subject and I would advise you to read them all. Specifically: Gabriel Cousens, Ann Wigmore, and Victoria Boutenko.

If you have a total genius living under your roof, like I do, they may say things like, "There is absolutely no scientific founding in those statements." which used to hurt my feelings, but then I learned what he was really saying was..."This information isn't in any of the scientific studies I've read by people I respect... "Oh, ok." ... "So, you respect yourself, right? Your own mind and abilities at deductive reasoning?"...obviously... "So, make me your lab rat. You monitor what I eat and how I feel in conjunction with what goes in my mouth and you tell me what works and what doesn't based on the end result of no gut pain and no joint pain, no migraines...

And honestly, THAT HAS WORKED! I am obviously feeling better:) And hubby's helping me prove it to both of us!