The Raw Diet: An experiment

So today marks the first day of a month-long experiment for Stephen and I.  For the next four weeks we will be following a slightly modified version of the Raw Food diet.

What exactly is this?  The Raw Food diet, or as many would say, the Raw Food lifestyle, is one where not only does a person eliminate processed foods from their diet, they also eliminate most cooked foods from their diet and focus mainly on fresh vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds.  Cooking a vegetable breaks it down  and less of the nutrients can be absorbed by your body.  However, drying things like fruits does not break it down.  This diet is also for the purpose of eliminating toxins from your body, which are so prevalent in processed foods in the form of preservatives, hormones, pesticides, and even just large amounts of sugar.

Stephen and I are doing a modified version of this.  We are keeping eggs and fish (and occasionally organic chicken) but much of our diet will be things like fresh veggies, fruits, berries, green smoothies, nuts and seeds.  We are also keeping in organic milk, raw organic peanut butter, plain greek yogurt (without sugary additives) and raw honey.

A typical day for us might look something like this:

Breakfast: Eggs with sliced avocado, berries, fresh juice

Lunch:  Apples and peanut butter, green smoothie (Berries, banana, fresh spinach, Perfect Food powder (Super Green formula), greek yogurt, and a little milk)

Snack: Almonds, kiwi/ pomegranate seeds (yum!)

Dinner: Grilled Tilapia (cooked with olive oil, salt and fresh garlic), baby spinach salad with dried cranberries, sliced almonds, and (homemade) balsamic vinaigrette.  


Things we will be giving up for the next month include:

-Coffee (ouch!)
-ice-cream (double ouch for me!)
-pasta
-bread
-processed meats and chicken
-cheese (we normally eat a ton of this)
-regular processed yogurt
-juice (except that which we juice ourselves with fresh fruit)
-condiments like ketchup, mayo etc


What we have been hearing from others on the Raw Food diet is that they have noticed a drastic difference in their health.  Their energy has skyrocketed, they have more mental clarity and focus, their complexion improved, they have lost extra weight that they carried.  Some health issues have gone away and even some diseases have been reversed.

It makes sense to me.  If we are eating fresh healthy foods and avoiding foods that are not good for our bodies we should naturally have much better health, right?  Needless to say, I have high hopes for this little experiment.  I plan to blog a couple of times a week during this process to share what, if any, changes Stephen and I are noticing.  Here we go! :)