The process of pasteurization was invented by Louis Pasteur to ensure that food was safe for everyone to eat. The problem with this process is that it doesn't just kill the bad bacteria, it also kills the good bacteria and enzymes and takes away vitamins and minerals. Eating some foods raw is actually a great way to ensure that you will get all of the vitamins, undamaged proteins, and unoxidated fats.
Raw food is simply uncooked (never heated about 188 degrees Fahrenheit), unprocessed (as few ingredients as possible), and organic (no preservatives or pesticides). There are several reasons why it is best to eat some foods raw. When a food is cooked over 188 degrees, the enzymes needed to digest your food are killed off, along with most of the vitamins and minerals. It also changes the pH of the food, making it more acidic, and denatures the proteins and oxidizes the fats. A good way to think about eating raw foods is when you pick a living vegetable or fruit it continues to ripen, but once it is cooked it starts to decay.
Incorporating a raw food diet is easy to do and the rewards can be amazing. Some of the benefits that occur when a diet is 75 percent raw include: more energy, requiring less sleep to feel refreshed, weight loss, less susceptibility to colds and the flu, decreased allergies, better functioning immune system, decreases symptoms of PMS, and increased sexual function.
There are many types of raw food diets that limit what you eat or force you to completely revamp your diet. For some people, something like that may be necessary, but for others the most important thing is finding a way to incorporate raw foods into your current diet so that it can become a long term change.
For recipes or ideas regarding raw foods you can check out these websites:
http://www.rawinten.com/
http://www.sustainabletable.org/
http://www.thebestofrawfood.com/
