Cherie Soria

Eating a raw food diet means consuming fresh, nutrient-rich plant foods that have not been heat processed. When foods are cooked, much of their important disease-preventing nutrients are lost. Conversely, a raw diet provides you with a greater degree of health and vitality, slows aging, and promotes healing. By making the majority of your diet healthy raw foods and avoiding unhealthy alternatives, you can improve your health and reduce your risks of suffering from a degenerative disease.

You may find that your friends and family are a little reluctant to try raw foods. By considering these do's and don'ts, you can reduce their anxiety about how your new lifestyle may impact them: Don't be preachy or pushy! An aggressive attitude doesn't win friends or influence people. Instead, offer your family and guests delicious raw foods that you know they'll love and let them open the door and ask questions if they're interested in knowing the why and what of raw food.

With a bit of planning and preparation, you can enjoy the health benefits and culinary rewards of raw food any time. To make mealtime a snap, here's a list of raw foods to keep stocked: Versatile fruits such as blueberries, oranges, bananas, and avocados Fresh, in-season vegetables Leafy greens, includ

When you start transitioning to a raw food diet, knowing what to eat can be tough. Be adventurous and try new things, but also be sure to follow these eating tips to ensure you get proper nutrition: Eat a wide variety of fresh, ripe, raw, organic fruits and vegetables. Consume all the colors of the rainbow to get a full spectrum of nutrients.

Maintaining a raw lifestyle away from home may seem daunting at first. By planning ahead and packing some of your own ingredients to enhance the raw offerings available at your destination, you can ensure that you have a healthy and satisfying meal just about anywhere. Pack these items when you're eating raw

When you hear the words raw food diet, you probably correctly assume that it doesn't include fried, roasted, baked, or grilled foods. You may also realize that most raw foodists avoid highly processed, sugary, salty, and oily foods. But that's not the whole story. Here are a few more foods that may appear healthy at first glance but don't measure up to raw standards: Roasted nuts and seeds: Select raw varieties of seeds and nuts to avoid free-radical damage to your cells.