By Muscle Media
Baby Boomers are obsessed with keeping young and staying vital. Back in the day, the motto was: “Don’t trust anyone over thirty!”. Well, now they’re all well over thirty! Still, they want to grow old gracefully, and stay as healthy as they can for as long as they can. That’s where a raw diet may help. It’s said that harmful chemicals we take into our bodies have a cumulative effect on us. You may have heard of someone being “sensitive” to an artificial sweetener. They try to drink diet soda and get terrible migraines every time. Or, a family member may have a food allergy. Consequently, this can lead to stomach troubles, rashes, and a host of other maladies. Sometimes it can be as simple as gas. Furthermore, they can be struck down with terrible pains and diarrhea.
Switch to Raw Diet
When you switch to a raw diet, many of these issues disappear. But granted, whole grains are not something you can consume if you have a gluten allergy. Instead, you have to substitute whole rice, but that’s a minor point. When implemented properly, a good raw diet may increase your lifespan, boost your energy and even help ward off diseases like cancer, and diabetes.
Raw Foods
What do you eat if you only wish to eat raw food? It means consuming only natural foods. Ideally, they should be grown organically and locally. This will help you to be sure of the soil in which they are grown, and that they’re unlikely to have harmful herbicides and pesticides. It also means you’ll be eating very little meat, and certainly no red meat. The diet prohibits meats such as pork, lamb, and beef. Some variations of the raw food diet allow seafood. Beyond that, the diet is essentially vegetarian, even vegan. Some people even prefer to go further and maintain a strictly vegan raw diet.
Seasonal
Typically, we eat only certain foods in specific seasons. Generations ago we used to eat seasonally. This is a common sense approach because of the limited seasonal availability of many foods. As an example, if you live in the United States, corn is only available locally in the summer. If you want some during the winter, it can’t have been produced locally. Therefore, it is not something you would want to include in your raw food diet. Where you live is a large part our daily diet. It is a function of the kinds of foods grown in your immediate area. Your location will determine the time of the year local foods are grown and produced.
Planning
When planning your food for the day, here are some points to consider. First, you need to include some kind of grain, a protein, a variety of vegetables and a dessert of some fruit. (Depending on your health and weight, you may want to forgo the dessert!)
Textures
The next thing to consider are the different textures of foods. You want a variety of textures to keep your raw food diet interesting. That means combining and alternating soft, smooth, crunchy and even sticky items. To provide a variety of tastes, try sweet, sour, salty or bitter tastes. Many people call these contrasts the “yin and yang” of the diet.
Portions
For the grain portion, consider whole rice, especially if you have a problem with gluten. Remember that you are allowed to cook up to 20% of your food on most raw food diet programs. Another grain you might try is a dish of polenta made with fresh corn. For your protein portion, whip up some rich and creamy red lentils. Next, to get your serving of vegetables, make a green salad with sunflower seeds, diced chives and carrots. Chop up some Chinese cabbage with lemons and red radishes. For the vegetables, you could have some beets, carrots, or snap peas. Finally, if you’re hungry, try a bowl of sweet winter squash for dessert.
Balance
In every way, these meals create the proper blend of foods and sensations. If you maintain a raw diet that has this balance, it’s said that you’ll maintain your health. Also, you can battle the negative effects of aging.
