If you've heard about raw foods or raw food diets you may be wondering -- what are raw foods. I know a lot about raw foods because I've been eating them for many years, having cured myself of breast cancer, fibromyalgia, arthritis, acid reflux, sinus infections and many other ailments and conditions after starting on my own vegan raw food diet. This short list of living plant foods are mainly fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds in their natural form. They can't be cooked, canned, refined or processed in any way. They're also called living foods, because they're alive when you eat them whereas if it's been cooked it's no longer raw food. They're no longer raw if they've been heated to 108-116 degrees. In the raw food vegan community it depends on who you're talking to as to the highest temperature these living foods can tolerate. As human beings we cannot tolerate these high temperatures. People who eat raw or living foods predominately have superior health and are called raw foodists, raw fooders or raw vegans. Many people think peanuts are nuts but they're not. Peanuts are legumes. It's confusing and it's why a lot of people don't know --- what are raw foods. Some people think grains and legumes are raw foods but they're not. Some people grow little plants out of them called sprouts but the sprouts are technically vegetables not grains. Grains as we know them are refined in mills. They can cause many health problems including gluten intolerance and celiac disease from the gliadin fraction of gluten. They are wheat, rye, barley, spelt, triticale, and kamut. Oats contains the prolamin fraction of gluten and is not a gluten offender. It's included because it's refined in wheat mills where there's a problem with cross-contamination due to sharing of equipment and air-borne particles. Many people are allergic to wheat. Wheat is the most allergenic food on the well-known list of the top eight food allergens. A food that is not typically thought of to include on our list is coconut. Young coconuts are found in Asian markets and are one of the healthiest foods on the planet. Raw foodists drink the coconut water and eat the meat. We use the coconut meat in vegan recipes and make a lot of fruit smoothies and gourmet raw desserts with it. Another living food on most lists is seaweed. It's dried but considered raw. We never eat roasted seaweed. Seaweed includes nori, dulse, wakimi, etc. Nori is the wrap commonly used around sushi. Dates are often thought of as dried foods, but most dates are not dried. Other foods like raisins and non-sulfured dried fruits are eaten by some raw fooders. But they're not considered truly living foods because they may be heated to 108 degrees or so. They're never eaten when sugar or sulfur dioxide has been added. If a food has been pasteurized it's considered cooked. The heat damages or kills most if not all of the vitamin, minerals and other phytonutrients or phytochemicals. This is a basic explanation of living food but should give you some idea as to what are raw foods. Why not try some easy raw food recipes such as simple gourmet desserts that help you eat healthy and lose weight with every bite.
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