Low Calorie and Vegetarian Raw Food Diet

The natural raw food diet, also referred to as alive, live or Living Raw Food Diet is perhaps the ultimate in low calorie and vegetarian or vegan eating. Raw food, it's claimed, give you more energy, better health, is low in calories, aid weight loss, as well as a host of other benefits.

The distinct difference between a raw or living food diet and a low calorie and vegetarian one is that while vegans and vegetarians will only consume a plant-based diet, living or alive raw food health followers believe in eating only natural uncooked, unheated, unprocessed and organic plant based food.

Low calorie and vegetarian raw food proponents believe that not only are vitamins and minerals destroyed during the cooking process, but that cooked food takes longer to digest and allows some partially digested foods to clog the digestive system and arteries.

Because raw foods have not gone through any of the processes of refinement or been stripped of its nutrients, as is the case with many of our traditional foods, low calorie and vegetarian raw food diet lends itself to being a particular effective way to eat.

What is raw food diet?

There has been much recently about raw or living food diet but what is the difference between raw or living foods to other commonly eaten foods?

All foods are living food until they have been processed in some way or another. For instance, tomatoes, beans or peas in their raw state are living foods, until they are changed from this raw state through being subjected to cooking, heating and/or having additives such as preservatives, colourings, salt or sugar for example.

Low calorie and vegetarian raw food diet or living food diets only use foods in their natural, living virgin state. The term living foods refers to sprouted foods, which are said to contain a higher level of enzymes. The term raw foods refer to those which remain unsprouted and is termed as being in a 'dormant' state. You activate the enzymes in raw foods by allowing it to sprout. An example being that if you soak a (raw) pea or bean in water, it sprouts and becomes live.

As a low calorie and vegetarian diet, raw and living foods are believed to contain far more essential food enzymes than cooked foods, which lose their enzymes when they are heated to temperatures in excess of 116*F. Further, that consuming unprocessed and preferably whole, ripe organic uncooked plant-based food will keep you healthy because they are consumed in their natural state.

Examples of foods consumed on a low calorie and vegetarian raw food diet include: