Ooh baby I like it Raw- so does Demi Moore!

How was your Easter? Did you know that Demi Moore and I have something in common? Well before I get into that I need to tell you about our '60 day shape up summer challenge' coming your way soon. For a selected number of people, its a chance to look and feel amazing using our specially designed nutritional and exercise program just in time for summer! Keep an eye on your in box for more info.

 

We held a ‘Real food’ nutritional seminar at the Optimum Health studio on Easter Saturday. We had a special guest Graham Jevons come and share his story about how he discovered a completely new life, lost over 10 stone in 6 months by introducing ‘real food’ in his diet. He is a naturopathic nutritionist, has adopted and ‘living’ the benefits of a 100% raw food diet.

 

His story is truly inspiring. You can read more about Graham here.

 

The whole raw food issue is a subject that is becoming more and more topical.In their quest for eternal youth, more and more celebrities are seeing and living the raw food life. These "raw foodist" include Celebrities Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson who frequently grace the raw food scene. Others include Donna Karan, Sting and Angela Bassett. I believe that in a few short years the general awareness of the eating real food in your diet will become more main stream and make it much more difficult for the food manufacturers to 'dictate' to us what we should eat. You need not worry because you're smart. By reading these Optimum Health blog posts, you'll stay ahead of the curv!

 

I never forget attending a nutritional course some years back and one of the course lecturers saying  “When you go shopping ask yourself- could or would my great grandparents eat this?” if the answer is no, don’t buy it!  Smart advice, which I mostly follow. I don’t t think my great-grand folks had access to Redbull, Rice krispies or Special K, but they did have access to sweet potato’s, eggs and oranges and can all be class as real food.

 

 

So which is best Raw food or Cooked food?

You get no bonus points for guessing that I’m going to say - Raw food is better, which it is. However, before you start eating like a grass fed cow or a Lion form the African savanna there are some things you need to take into account.

Our ancient forefathers mainly ate a plant-based raw food diet. Every now and then they would eat raw meat, but his was not a large percentage of their eating practice. There are a number of studies suggesting that if your diet is solely focused on raw plant foods only, you could be at risk of a decline in your health over the long term.

You have heard me say before that you should try eat food that is as close nature as intended-not processed. Do your best to get as much raw food in your diet as possible. I personally have started to increase the number of raw foods in my daily diet and I encourage you to try do the same. These are some of the foods I eat raw. Try them out, as they will benefit both you and your family. These foods include:

 

• Spinach (my favourite veg) Sugarsnap

• Fish (salmon)

• Range of real fruits (apples, pears, plums, berries)

• Nuts and seed’s (pumpkin, flax or sunflower seeds)

 

My parents, as you know, are from Jamaica. I remember being told many stories (and I mean many!)  about how when they were younger they often ate real and raw food from the land. Many of the foods they ate were fresh and natural.

Cooking your food is not all bad though. There are some cases where cooking does appear to release more nutrition – such as the lycopene content of tomatoes (lycopene is an important intermediate in the biosynthesis of many carotenoids- these help your body build and repair) However, generally  cooking your food, especially at high temperatures, destroys naturally occurring enzymes. Enzymes are proteins; catalysts to speed up and facilitate reactions in your body. In fact, some biochemical reactions will not even occur without these enzymes (you have about 1,300 of them). So just remember if your cooking all your food, your body is going to be deficient in the enzymes it needs to function properly. It will also be lacking biophotons.

What are Biophotons?

Living raw foods contain the biophoton light energy your body needs. Every living organism emits biophotons. It is thought that the higher the level of light energy a cell emits, the greater its vitality and the potential for the transfer of that energy to the individual who consumes it. The more light a food is able to store, the more nutritious it is. Naturally grown fresh raw vegetables, for example, and sun-ripened fresh fruits, are rich in light energy. The capacity to store biophotons is therefore a measure of the quality of your food.The greater your store of light energy from healthy raw foods (this should not be confused with your vitamin D intake which is produced by the sun on your skin), the greater the power of your overall electromagnetic field, and consequently the more energy is available for you body to heal itself and maintain optimum health.

 

Is todays “Cooked”diet the same as the ancient Cooked diet?

One major point to consider is that the majority of the cooked foods people today eat are highly processed. Up to as much as 80% of foods that are purchased every week by people in the UK are processed foods, and these are primarily in the form of carbohydrates: grains, sugar, fructose - not the best way to enjoy health life.

These foods have little or no nutritional value to them, but also fructose and dietary carbohydrates (grains, whose starch break down into the monosaccharide “sugar” glucose) lead to excess body fat, obesity and related health issues. These foods were not part of the ancient diet, so even though some of their food may have been cooked, it was still in a primarily unprocessed form. There was no other choice, they didn’t have microwaves and gas hobs!

 

 

Here’s a section of a recent article I read….

 

 

“There is a growing movement of people who believe eating foods that are concordant with your genetic ancestry can help you avoid many of the diseases associated with our modern diet, including diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Such a diet, sometimes called a Paleo Diet or Caveman Diet, focuses primarily on a wide variety of raw, whole vegetables, fruits, nuts, roots and meat. "Normalizing" your system is the true strength of the so-called caveman diet. As Dr. Loren Cordain, author of The Paleo Diet and one of the world's leading experts on Paleolithic nutrition, states:

 

"The nutritional qualities of modern processed foods and foods introduced during the Neolithic period are discordant with our ancient and conservative genome. This genetic discordance ultimately manifests itself as various chronic illnesses, which have been dubbed "diseases of civilization."

By severely reducing or eliminating these foods and replacing them with a more healthful cuisine, possessing nutrient qualities more in line with the foods our ancestors consumed, it is possible to improve health and reduce the risk of chronic disease."

 

 

                     This was caveman obesity in 2000BC!

 

Eat like a caveman- Eat Raw!

In west society today there are a overwhelming number of conditions and diseases that simply weren’t seen – or at least, very rarely seen at best – in ancient times. Conditions such as, certain cancers, heart disease, diabetes, obesity. Why is this the case? The food that we have been ‘told’ to eat by the food industry is not the food we are ‘designed’ to eat. If there is one thing you take from this post, is to try going 'back to basics' and refocusing your diet on fresh, whole, unprocessed, "real & raw food” that will improve just about anyone's health.

You can easily craft your diet around the principles of Paleo eating rather easily. Generally speaking a "healthy diet" or eating your "healthiest best" is qualified by the following key factors:

 

• Unprocessed whole foods ( i.e. seeds, leafs,vegetables, nuts, fish,meat, herbs)

• Often raw or only lightly cooked (ideally, try to eat at least one-third of your food raw, or as much as you can manage)

• Pastured organic or grass-fed, and free from additives and genetically modified(GM) ingredients

• Come from high-quality, local sources (local is always better)

• Carbohydrates primarily come from high-nutrient vegetables (except corn and potatoes, keep these to a minimum)

 

In the run up to our up and coming ‘60 day shape up summer challenge’ we’ll be sharing with you some practical solutions on how you can start to enjoy more raw food in your diet.

 

 

 

Committed to your health.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reference from Dr Mercola.com & Dr Oz.com 2013