Eating Raw in the Summer

I am a huge advocate of the raw food diet. It allowed me to cleanse my system last summer. I will share my testimony in another post as to why I eat the way that I do now. Anyway, this summer I am on a search for more raw recipes so I can be all, or mostly all raw again. I cannot stress the benefits of a raw food diet, consisting of mostly vegetables, fruits, seeds, and nuts. 

A small percentage of animal products like raw goats milk and eggs are great also. I can't honestly say I've gotten to the raw eggs yet. I'm not sure I ever will. perhaps blended with certain recipes, but the image of chugging a raw egg by body builders in the 80's still holds in my mind-not attractive.

A daily diet made of mostly raw foods makes a body oh so happy. I know from experience that I feel so much better when I've eaten a higher ratio of raw foods, and drank enough water each day. By the way you can easily know how much water your particular body need by dividing your body weight in half and using that number as ounces instead of puonds. Kind of like if you weigh 120lbs then you would need to drink a  minimum of 60 ounces of water.

Raw foods, especially local, organic, raw veggies and fruits have these really neat things called enzymes. Our bodies need them for proper digestion and the breaking down of proteins.  The more enzymes we consume the better off our digestion and the assimilation of the food we consume is as well. The longer a food has been out of the ground, and the more pesticides it has on it, the less enzymes it is going to have which is bad for the whole digestion process.

So growing your own gardens, shopping at local farmers markets, or joining a CSA are great ways to ensure that the pocketbook isn't breaking while getting proper nutrition. Our bodies need to work hard beleive it or not to digest properly. Eating too many cooked foods slows down that process which can lead to stress on other organs in the body, or eventual shut down altogether.

The worst foods to eat are cooked processed foods like refined white flours, sugars, and  rice. Those processed foods have the nutritional properties stripped, plus they are bleached, and full of pesticides/insecticides. Our intestines or our "gut" is such an integrally important part of our system as a whole. People talk about the heart, and the brain...but what about the gut? Oh, as a matter of fact that I like that question so much, I think I'll make it a post on its own :)

Another great blog that I like is http://rawon10.blogspot.com/. She has some fantatsic raw recipes for those of use on a budget :) Eating healthy does not have to eat your wallet. Realistically though, are you going to spend more for organic spinach than for a box of macaroni and cheese? Well, yes you certainly will because you get what you pay for by far.

While we are on Earth our spirits are housed by a physical temple that the Holy God of the Universe has graciously given us to take care of  while we are here and to be good stewards. Yes, God cares about what we eat or He wouldn't have talked about it in his Word. Yes, this is my blog, and I'll preach if I want to...lol :)