A raw food diet typically encompasses uncooked vegetarian foods, including fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, sprouts, herbs, whole grains and sea vegetables. Since a raw food diet doesn’t usually include dairy products, simply omitting honey results in a vegan raw diet. Although less common, some raw foodists consume raw fish and therefore aren’t vegetarian or vegan. The 40/20/20/20 guideline for meal planning helps raw foodists make sure they consume a wide variety of nutrients.
Raw Foods
To fit into a strict raw diet, food from either plant or animal sources cannot be heated above about 115 degrees F. The average raw kitchen consists of a variety of fresh and frozen vegetables, dried seaweed, fresh, dried and frozen fruit, raw oats and other uncooked, sprouted whole grains, raw nuts and seeds, cold-pressed oils and wheatgrass powder and other superfoods. By definition, the diet omits traditional processed food, canned food and foods with added sugar.
Benefits
Proponents of raw food often refer to it as living food, because its live enzymes are intact. Raw foodists contend that consuming live food allows you to obtain a higher amount of essential nutrients than consuming the same food after it’s been cooked. They believe eating whole, uncooked food also eases the digestive process. In addition, the diet's total lack of processed food and added sugar usually leads to weight loss and an increase in energy.
Meal Planning
When planning meals, some followers of the diet use guidelines such as the 40/20/20/20 rule to help them create well-rounded meals with a diversity of nutrients. Because the average raw food diet doesn’t include meat, poultry, fish or dairy products, the 40/20/20/20 ratio refers exclusively to carbohydrates. Following these guidelines, 40 percent of the plate should be nonstarchy vegetables, while starchy vegetables, whole grains and fruits are allotted the remaining 60 percent of the plate, in equal portions.
Types
Nonstarchy vegetables include dark leafy greens such as spinach and kale, lettuce, cucumbers, asparagus, broccoli, bok choy and celery as well as tomatoes, eggplant, carrots and beets. Legumes are the quintessential starchy vegetables in a raw diet, including lentils, dried split peas and garbanzo, kidney and pinto beans. The most common sources of raw whole grains are wheat, oats and rye. You must soak raw whole grains, lentils and dried beans, a process called sprouting, before you can use them in a recipe.
Considerations
In addition to filling your grocery cart with the right proportions of fruits, whole grains, nonstarchy and starchy vegetables, seek food in a variety of colors. A plate that contains blue, purple, red, yellow, green and orange foods provides more diverse nutrition than a plate that only has green and yellow foods. It may seem too complicated to adhere to the 40/20/20/20 plan at every meal, but if you generally follow the guideline, you’re likely to derive a wide variety of nutrients from your diet.
References
- “The Complete Book of Raw Food”; Julie Rodwell, Editor; 2008
- “Fit For Life Not Fat For Life”; Harvey Diamond; 2003
- DineWise: Meal Planning Made Easy
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