Raw Food Explored

How Good Is Raw Food?

A raw food diet is a diet that consists mainly of uncooked vegetables, fruit, legumes and seeds. The raw food diet may also contain eggs and other food that can be eaten raw but not everyone does it that way and there are some risks associated with eating raw eggs and raw meat. As a result, most people who do the raw food diet follow a vegan diet.

The raw food diet is argued to be beneficial to the human body in more ways than one. The main concept of the raw food diet lies with the fact that many vegetables and fruits lose a major chunk of their nutrients once the food is cooked or overcooked. To counter this loss, the concept of raw food diets is fast becoming popular.

However, with advantages, the raw food diet has its own disadvantages. Some critics have argued that a raw food diet is not a complete nutritious diet for people. Therefore, people should ensure that they have the require substitutes for the nutrients that they would not be getting once they adhere to a raw food diet. Also, bear in mind that most experts who support the raw food diet say that only eighty per cent of the diet needs to be raw to get all the benefits.

The diet may be lacking in vitamins like the vitamin D and vitamin B12 if you ONLY eat raw food. Also, vitamins that are present in meat, like the B6 vitamin, may not be available for people who are adhering to the raw food diet 100%. Also, a raw food diet does contain very less zinc, protein and iron. Be sensible about it, listen to your body and include pulses and some protein and you should do well on the raw food diet. A totally raw food diet is not suggested for a pregnant woman or even a growing child. Many medical authorities believe that a raw food diet does not have the necessary calories to feed a pregnant woman or a growing child. Also, recent tests have shown that a completely raw food diet cannot be followed by any person because of the essential nutrients that are not present in a raw food diet. Remember the 80-20 guideline and get a balanced diet.

The most important aspect of any diet is the enzymes. The body needs enzymes to perform a variety of the daily functions. Therefore, enzymes like amylase and protease are quite important for the healthy living of a human. The raw food diet you are following should have the essential nutrients you need for your daily life. Many of these enzymes are destroyed by cooking. The enzymes are also necessary for the body, because they help in increasing the immunity as well as decreasing the fatigue levels of the body.

Therefore, it can be safely said that raw food diets offer advantages over cooked food, but for it to be embraced as a full time diet, you should also include whole grains which have of course been cooked, and a good source of protein. There is several raw food diet recipes available, what with the many cookbooks related to the raw food diets. Also, the Internet is a good place to look for the raw food diets. Just a simple search on any of the major search engines will give you a list of all the websites that cater to raw food recipes and raw food diets.

What Is Seitan?

More and more people are talking about Seitan when it comes to healthy food options today. But what is it really? According to Wikipedia Seitan is an alternative to soya bean based sources as tofu and similars (1). 

The raw content is wheat gluten prepared and baked before going into local stores (if you can find some). The color when baked is many times light golden brown, like some mushrooms.

It is difficult to find good research studies on Seitan (so if you have found one, you are welcome to place it in the comment area on this blog post). But looking closer to this area you can find premade Seitan pieces in packages, deep oil fried in cans,  raw samples, steamed and dry baked in the market. Many people prefer this sponge or dense texture compared to other vegetarian eating options. Gluten allergic people cannot eat this and there is currently different views on how healthy gluten really is for the human body. Many vegetarians think though, that Seitan is a better choice for the body than meat food after all. Now, the fact is, there is people who have found a way, a method to extract the gluten and can make a ‘Seitan like product’ out of it as well.

Benefits: Fat free, cholesterol free, protein rich. 

Preparation

Gluten can be flavored in a variety of ways. When simmered in a traditional broth of soy sauce or tamari, ginger, garlic, and kombu (seaweed), it is called seitan (2). You can also add fresh herbs for the season and by choice. It can many times be found in combination with a marinade, however, there is also paste variants in tubes, cube formats and frozen options in specialty organic health shops in the market. You have manufactures around you providing Seitan, it is just an art to find it, to find what you are looking out for particularly.

How to make your own Seitan

Below is a video on how to make your own Seitan from the beginning point.

Other Health And Fitness News