Posts Tagged ‘Chocolate Bar’

Benefits of Eating More Raw Foods

April 5th, 2010

There are plenty of very good reasons to make the switch to a higher concentration of raw foods in your diet. Ideally, of course, you would make the switch to an all-raw diet if eating for energy was your main priority in life. However, sometimes life gets in the way of your ideal eating goals.


But when you feel yourself wavering between a healthy raw option and that processed chocolate bar at snack time, here’s a few thoughts you can review in your mind to remind yourself of why you chose to eat more raw foods in the first place.


Raw foods take less preparation time. Sure, it might not seem like it at time, but overall, a raw diet means you spend a lot less time in the kitchen, and a lot more time out enjoying your life. No longer will you have to baste roasts, cook pasta, thaw turkeys, or wait for water to boil. A raw diet means, at most, you have to put something in the dehydrator overnight. Otherwise, it’s a few minutes of prep time, and straight onto the plate.


Eating raw also means less energy waste, both in your home and in your body. Cooking foods means electricity-hogging appliances like your stove are used, spilling excess heat into your home and adding big bucks to your bills.


But while eating raw means less energy used, it is also a high energy diet for you, in that the essential vitamins, nutrients and living enzymes in the food that sometimes are lost to the cooking process are instead brought into the body. You will probably notice, almost immediately after you begin eating more raw foods that you will have energy levels you haven’t felt since you were much younger. You won’t believe how tired and sluggish you used to feel, and it is that feeling of power, energy and vitality that you need to remember when you feel your will power slipping, and the lure of something cooked and unhealthy beaconing to you.


What other reasons do you need to keep yourself on the raw foods straight and narrow path? Eating for energy in its raw form means you will be taking in more fibre, which will aide in digestion and help you to feel full on less food.


Eating raw also usually means an intake of fewer calories, but more good calories. Many people try to lose weight by simply cutting calories, but in the end, their body craves the energy. Eating raw doesn’t deprive the body, it floods it with good fuel, and encourages the body to become a more high-powered and efficient machine in the process.


A diet high in raw foods will, by its very nature, have less processed sugar than the average person’s diet. But with all of the fresh fruits available, you will never have to deny your sweet tooth.


In the end, when you make the change to eat more raw foods, the biggest benefit will be the higher levels of energy, and how good overall you will feel. Can a moment on the lips replace that? Fat chance.

Energy Boosting Raw Foods

March 18th, 2010

When people think about foods that can give them a boost of energy, they don’t often think about non-processed and uncooked foods. You can blame the media if you like – there are no ads out there on television telling you about the benefits of blueberries, but there are plenty of advertisements to tell you about the newest blueberry-flavored energy drinks, with all the nutrients and benefits of real blueberries in every bottle.

Don’t you sometimes stop to wonder – if the ingredients are so good, why don’t we just skip all the other stuff, and eat the good stuff, without all the sugar and extra stuff that we don’t need? Here are three of the most heavily advertised energy-boosting items of the day, and a raw food alternative that will give you the same benefits, but with the added bonus of nothing else added after the fact.

Number one on most people’s stimulant list is the simple cup of coffee. Despite all the negatives associated with caffeine, many people still flock to this hot beverage every morning. Some studies have shown that the effects of caffeine may be more psychosomatic than actual, and we may just believe that coffee works, which makes caffeine seem all the more potent.

But if you want to avoid the boiling bean juice, and still want to get that jolt when you wake up, consider giving your body a burst of cold instead of hot. A glass of water can have the same invigorating effect as caffeine, without the chemicals, and it’s ready to serve much quicker. But don’t let that be your whole breakfast. Caffeine is to the body as nitrous oxide (or NOS) is to a race car’s engine: it gives a quick hit of power that burns out almost immediately and it can do real damage to the system. Instead, give your body a tank full of good fuel, and you’ll drive all day.

Another go-to food item for people looking for extra energy is that thinly disguised chocolate bar that they call an “energy bar”. Again, most of the energy comes from refined and processed sugars – hardly good fuel, but it does burn quick and bright. Instead of these heavy hitters, consider a handful of raw almonds. These nuts are just as portable as that chocolate bar, and will give you the calories your body needs to burn in order to operate, as well as some essential fats to help your body function.

The third item on this list resides on the ever-growing shelf of energy drinks. These caffeinated, sugar-enriched, chemical concoctions are full of all sorts of powerful but unhealthy additives, and in the long run, you are far better off going with a natural “energy drink” – the fresh fruit smoothie. They taste a thousand times better, give you much needed vitamins, and some natural sugars to burn in your engine. And compared to the high prices on the shelves, a smoothie will cost you pennies on the energy drink dollar.