Raw Foods Diet For Weight Loss and Probiotics

A raw foods diet is the best and most natural way of increasing your intake of probiotics.

And it is almost a given that you will lose weight if you're eating raw foods as a major part of your diet.

Raw food contains more vitamins, minerals, enzymes, fiber and probiotics than cooked food as many of these are lost or destroyed through the cooking process.

In fairness, there is the occasional vegetable where more nutrients are available when cooked than raw - but not many.

Fruits and vegetables play a major part in such a diet and these are full of health-promoting phytochemicals. These are chemical substances found in fruit and vegetables and one food item can contain a hundred different phytochemicals.

A raw foods diet is also much lower in salt.

This is the sort of food the human body was designed to eat.

And remember that you don't need to follow a 100% raw foods diet to gain substantial benefit from it.

I am slowly changing to such a food plan but still eat yogurt, aged cheese and some cooked meals. Over time I will make more changes but I'll always eat more yogurt and aged cheese than such a diet recommends.

Changing to a raw food diet, whether for weight loss or general health improvement, is easy if you start with one meal a day.

That's how I'm doing it. I eat a bowl of mixed raw fruit for breakfast. This is not a substantial change for me - I used to eat a wholegrain cereal with raw fruit, yogurt and milk. It feels very natural and "right". I've always enjoyed yogurt with my breakfast but I do find that my palate feels clean and refreshed after this "only fruit" meal.

Now, I'm introducing a large salad for lunch. I grate some aged cheese into it to boost the probiotic content and use a yogurt based dressing.

Remember that foods such as sauerkraut are fermented - they do not require further cooking. The fermentation process effectively "cooks" them in a way that you still get their probiotic content. If you cook them you will detroy these good bacteria.

Sauerkraut and other fermented foods certainly count within a raw food diet.

I live in a small community where vegetarian or raw food restaurants are unheard of, so if I'm out for lunch, I can eat what is available knowing that I have already had one complete raw food meal.

The raw foods diet is a natural for me because of the way it boosts probiotic intake - but I'm not an expert on it. The plan that I'm following is the Eating For Energy - Raw Food Diet For Weight Loss

I feel good and I'm losing weight.

I've been following the blueprint for 3 weeks (and remember I'm implementing it slowly, one meal at a time) and have lost 3 kilograms. (approx 7 lbs)

I've never felt hungry, never felt deprived. In fact, I'm feeling great on it.

There are a number of recipes included and these have helped me see how to prepare vegetables so that they don't have to be cooked.

Who would have thought that a raw foods diet could be so downright tasty!

Update 1 year later - I lost 10 kilograms (about 22lbs) on this plan

Or read Ani's Raw Food Essentials: Recipes and Techniques for Mastering the Art of Live Food availabe in either regular book foorm or kindle. You can read the first chapter below.