By spring time most of us are ready to peel off the jumpers and step into lighter clothing. Along with spring cleaning our wardrobe, we often need to spring clean our diet.
Throughout the winter it is easy to get into a habit of having more stodgy warming foods and if you have also had a couple of colds, then you really are ready for a nutrient boost to get you feeling brighter and lighter.
Adding more raw food to your daily diet will boost nutrients and get your digestive system fired up again. Raw foods contain more enzymes, as they are inactivated by cooking. Going back to prehistoric days, our body could cope with eating 5 kgs of raw food a day. Over time cooking was introduced and our stomachs are much smaller, so unable to digest more than 1kg a day. 1KG can be divided into 10 to 12 portions in a day.
RELATED: RECOMMENDED PLANS FOR YOUEating too much cooked and processed foods puts stress on the digestive system and particularly the pancreas, which releases many enzymes as well as insulin to balance blood sugar. While the gallbladder also gets a battering from too much fat and sugar. This can result in common problems such as bloating and heart burn.
Eating a raw diet will help fire up your metabolism and digestive system to help shed off the lbs along with boosting your immune system and giving a healthy glow to your skin.
However, if you are not used to eating regular amounts of raw foods, you need to build up slowly and take time to chew your food well which also stimulate your own enzymes to reduce bloating. .Introducing raw foods, using different textures such as smoothies will help and adding natural digestives such as ginger. Then gradually move to eating only raw food one day a week to make a real difference to your health!
To make sure you get all your essential nutrients on your raw food day, you need to add nuts, seeds and sprouted beans which provide good sources of protein and healthy fats to combine with your greens and fruits. Including avocado’s which are a good source of protein and healthy fat.
Simple raw food diet menu plan
Start your day with a high energy green smoothie or a juice
– 1 handful of spinach
– half a pear
– half an apple
– 1 x celery stick
– ¼ cucumber
– half a small avocado
– 250ml of water
– 1 x dsp of fresh mint
Add half the ingredients with the water and blitz for a couple of minutes. Then add the rest of the ingredients and give another quick blitz.
Snack
Handful of blueberries
Lunch
large chunky coleslaw made with cabbage, carrot, radishes, tomato & fennel with lime and ginger dressing sprinkled with 25g mixed seeds (pumpkin, sunflower & sesame)
Snack 1 x apple plus 3 brazil nuts
Dinner
Starter 1 x grapefruit
Main
100g Courgette ribbons with sprouted mung beans, flavoured with 1 tsp of raw honey & lemon juice , garlic and grated ginger with a tomato & onion salsa,
Dessert – chocolate truffle made with 1 cup of dates, half a cup of ground almonds , 1 freshly squeezed orange .
Add to small mixer to bind together then roll into small bite size balls and coat in cocoa. Yum! These should last you all week in an airtight container.
So you can enjoy raw food while getting the health benefits of better digestion, glowing skin and more energy. A great way to start Spring!
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