The benefits of being raw

That's lasagne from The Raw Chef Blog. Yum.

I'm on my third month of being raw! I've received a few emails from people asking me to spend more time writing about the raw lifestyle. Interestingly, I'm spending a lot more time researching the benefits of being raw than I am reading about politcs. It's been a nice change to say the least. The presidential campaign coverage has been a joke. I guess I didn't expect much, but the lack of substance has been insulting. No wonder half of this country doesn't vote and 30 percent of the population still believes Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11.

OK, back to raw. After being vegan for 11 years, the transformation to becoming 100 percent raw hasn't been as drastic as some might think. I didn't have any major detox experiences or cravings. Overall, it's been incredible, but truth be told, living a raw lifestyle is still pretty radical...for now.

But that's about to change. The raw food lifestyle made it on Oprah yesterday:

Dr. Oz showed clips from a new show that is on the Discovery Channel called ‘The Truth about Food’ which is a six part series that discusses how food can help benefit our overall health.

One study that ‘The Truth about Food’ looked into dietary changes for managing high blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Another benefit from this dietary study was weight loss.

Because it is for television they had participants that had high blood pressure spend time at the zoo for 12 days to emphasize that they will eat like apes. They are checked into the zoo and were given the food that they were to eat. Each day they were given 11 pounds of raw fruits and vegetables each day. It was a huge amount of food. Day after day they keep eating the 11 pound of fruits and vegetables. They showed the participants hand to run to the bathroom a lot due to the high fiber intake.

The benefits were very obvious. The results of this study showed a 25% reduction in cholesterol levels. There was a 10% reduction in blood pressure levels. They also lost an average 10 pounds. Dr. Oz suggests that when you eat these kinds of food we get calories plus nutrition. He said that the nutrition will satisfies the hunger by satisfying the nutrition. They did not have salt with this diet which may also reduce blood pressure levels.