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The Elements Of A Healthy Raw Food Lifestyle

Eating raw food isn't the only key to health. A holistic raw food lifestyle is necessary if you want a truly vibrant and happy existence.

Most people, and especially the medical community, approach health in an extremely fragmented manner. Doctors give a person high blood pressure medication but ignore the underlying cause: arteries clogged with fat.

They see that someone is deficient in a vitamin and so suggest them in the form of a vitamin pill, forgetting that vitamins work best in the body when present with their constituent vitamins in a proportion that nature intended in healthy foods.

If a woman has osteoporosis, does it make sense to suggest the vitamin C in milk, when milk has been shown to strip the bones? Why aren't they told to go out in the sun and get vitamin D, which is necessary for bone growth?

Maybe weight bearing exercise and sun exposure coupled with a healthy diet would work better, but such methods make little money for anyone, which is perhaps why they are so rarely prescribed.

The raw food lifestyle is one that takes a big picture approach to life. It attempts to get at the underlying causes of ill health by addressing the root of diseases rather than trying to patch up their symptoms.

1) Eat A Completely Raw Food Diet

Raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds are the ideal food for human consumption, and the basis of a raw food lifestyle. Consume no irritants or stimulants like coffee, alcohol, and tobacco.

Avoid heated fats and proteins like fried oils and roasted nuts, as they are carcinogenic. Completely avoid the harmful animal proteins meat, dairy and eggs.

A raw diet will set you on a sustainable path of steady weight, energy, and health. Though the other elements of the raw food lifestyle all play an important part, diet is undoubtedly the first building block.

Learn about adopting a healthy raw food diet here.

2) Get daily exercise

Once you get into a routine, you'll find that daily exercise is one of the most pleasant things you can do for yourself. Exercise circulates large amounts of oxygen and blood in the body and leaves you feeling great.

Your energy level and endurance will increase over time, and you can consume more calories without gaining weight. Research has repeatedly shown that regular exercise fights depression, disorders of the mind like Alzheimer's, and a number of other diseases.

3) Expose yourself to the sun

Do your best to maintain a full body tan all year round while avoiding burns. In colder climates, establish a tan during the warmer months and expose yourself between noon and 2 p.m. during the winter on sunny days. The reflection of the sun off the snow helps.

A good summer tan can help you make it through the winter months in good health. Take winter vacations to sunny places if possible to supplement your tan.

Your body needs the vitamin D found in the rays of the sun. Without ultraviolet rays, your body cannot process vitamin C, which is critical to cellular function and bone growth.

Read more about the importance of sun exposure here.

4) Mind Your Mind

The placebo effect is too great to be ignored. The mind can not only make a heaven or hell on the inside of your skull, but affect the body as well. You often end up becoming or experiencing what you think about.

Are you stressed? Do you wake up every morning dreading the day ahead? Do you dwell on the negative? Maybe it's time for a change.

Investigate meditation. Learn how much better you can feel when you make it a point to think positive thoughts. Set goals so you keep moving forward.

5) Spend Time Breathing Fresh Air

Raw Food Lifestyle Clean Forest

Outside air has been pumped through the great lungs of the earth, our trees, and purified by the rays of the sun. Spend as much time as you can breathing outside, but also keep your windows open and place plants in your home. Get into the wilderness, because city air is filled with the exhaust from cars and factories.

6) Get Enough Sleep

A lack of sleep can compromise your health as much or more than diet. Your mental agility and recall, your body's ability to clean and rejuvenate itself, weight loss, and a host of other factors are all influenced by sleep.

Sleep affects serotonin balance, which regulates mood. Without a good balance, irritability is likely to result. If you cut out stimulants like coffee, getting enough sleep is a lot easier, but getting to bed at a good time is critical whatever diet you follow.

It's too easy to watch television mindlessly instead of sleeping.

7) Human Contact

No man is an island unto himself. If we don't form intimate contacts with at least a few other human beings, our lives will be shallow and empty. Human touch and companionship has proven to to have all kinds of benefits.

Massage recipients have been shown to have lower levels of the stress hormones cortisol, norepinephrine, and dopamine, which keeps them relaxed. They also do better on math tests, have a stronger immune system, and if they massage their spouse, have stronger marriages. That's not even getting into the benefits of sexual contact.

There are multiple ways you can interpret raw in raw food lifestyle. :)

8) Creative Expression

All men's gains are the fruit of venturing -Herodotus

You don't need science to tell you about the benefit of creativity. Diving into into the creation of something you love has an incredible power to it.

Writing a story, playing your piano, or carving a figure out of wood are just a few of the possibilities, but you'll find that whatever you pursue with interest and zest will bring all kinds of rewards.

9) Recreation

Life can't be all work. You need time to relax, so go hiking, join a a local baseball team, or find anything else you want to do that isn't part of your every day work routine.

I would suggest not watching much TV, though.

Analyzing The Raw Food Lifestyle

As you've probably figured out, this is not a complete list, but only the major points that any healthy raw food lifestyle should incorporate. I could easily add the love of music, physical cleanliness, laughter and smiling, and the development of an affinity for nature, to name a few.

But what is clear is that diet is not all there is to health and happiness. Without a big picture view and a holistic raw food lifestyle, disease and a host of other problems are just as likely as on a SAD diet.

Balance is the key.

Subpages:

1) How the sun fits into a raw food lifestyle.
2) Find Out how many vegetarians are out there in the world.
3) Why you should avoid television as part of a healthy life.

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