According to the Harvard School of Public Health's Healthy Eating Pyramid, you should center your diet around unprocessed, unmodified plant-based foods. The raw food diet takes this recommendation to heart, featuring a diet of raw and living foods, such as leafy greens, fresh fruit, vegetables, raw nuts, sprouts and raw seeds. If you want to integrate a less restrictive form of this diet into your lifestyle, consider a modified raw food diet.
Features
The Best of Raw Food website contains a transition chart that lists ingredients you can swap to transition to raw foods or to pursue a modified raw diet. Go from sugar to raw honey, salt to unrefined sea salt, white flour to whole-wheat flour, processed bread to sprouted bread, white pasta to sprouted pasta, farm-raised fish to wild fish, cow cheese to organic raw goat cheese, and milk to young coconut milk. While some of these foods are still cooked or processed, they represent stepping stones to a healthful raw diet.
Considerations
If you find a raw diet intimidating, consider some of its seemingly non-raw offerings. A raw diet allows for dehydrated fruits and vegetables. Sprouted grains and raw seeds make fodder for bread, pasta and crackers. Sun tea and sun-dried tomatoes qualify as raw foods, as you do not heat them above 116 degrees. The Living and Raw Foods website defines a raw food diet as one consisting of 75 percent raw foods, meaning that up to 25 percent of your calories can come from cooked sources, preferably organic and minimally processed.
Potential
A modified raw food diet can contain diverse and exotic dishes. Grate squash and toss it with cold-pressed olive oil and balsamic vinegar for a raw pasta. Toss in organic goat cheese or toasted nuts for a modified raw diet supplement. Wrap lettuce or spinach leaves around guacamole and raw or toasted corn. Blend together tomato, cucumber, yellow pepper, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and ginger for gazpacho, and eat it with whole-grain crackers.
Expert Insight
Dr. Mehmet Oz hosts a syndicated television show focused on educating the public about improving their health. He created a 28-day raw food challenge. His one-week transition period features a modified raw food diet that eschews white flour, sugar and red meat in favor of fresh produce, legumes, nuts, seeds, whole grains, dried fruit, seaweed, unprocessed organic foods, fresh juices, young coconut milk and purified water. By the fourth week, he recommends people try eating a completely raw diet.
Benefits
Oz cites several benefits of transitioning to raw foods or following a diet centered around raw and living foods, including more energy, a revitalized complexion, improved digestion, weight loss and a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease.
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