Because cooking takes so many nutrients and vitamins OUT of food, you automatically start feeding your body what it needs when you stop cooking food and start eating uncooked, nutrient-rich foods. A raw carrot has exponentially more nutrition than a cooked carrot.

Cooking also alters the chemistry of foods, often making them harder to digest. Why do we have so many digestive problems in this country? Because we're putting foods into our bodies in a form that we weren't designed to absorb. High fiber, high water content fresh produce abolishes constipation of the bowels, cells and circulatory system. Obstructions are cleared and blood flow increases to each and every cell in the body. Enhanced blood flow is significant for two reasons: as mentioned above, blood delivers nutrients and oxygen to living cells, and carries away their toxic metabolites.

Obesity is endemic in this country. The diet industry is more profitable than the oil companies. Why? Because the way we eat and prepare our food practically guarantees that we'll overeat. Psychologists tell us that we overeat because our souls are hungry. But in reality, our bodies are hungry, even though we may feel full. When you start giving your body the nutrients it craves, overeating will cease.

Eating raw foods is a boost to your metabolism as well. It takes a little more energy to digest raw foods, but it's a healthy process. Rather than spending energy to rid itself of toxins produced by cooking food, the body uses its energy to feed every cell, sending vitamins, fluids, enzymes and oxygen to make your body the efficient machine it was intended to be.

You'll naturally stop overeating, because your body and brain will no longer be starving for the nutrients they need. A starving brain will trigger the thoughts that make you overeat. The brain and the rest of your body don't need quantity; they need quality.

Raw food diets have advantages over eating cooked foods. For one, because raw foods are not cooked, they retain much more of their original nutritional value than if they were cooked. Second, raw foods are frequently much easier for the digestive system to process. And third, because of the previous two points, the bodys energy level is much higher. However, there are some precautions to consider along with the advantages. Although raw food diets are good for most people, they are not good for everyone. Children, for one, may not benefit as much from a raw food diet as an adult would. Children are very energetic. Their growing bodies need many nutrients that are not found in many raw foods and they need more of these nutrients than an adult does. Children can get their salts and sugars, to sustain their energy, from fruits and vegetables, but they also need large amounts of calcium and protein as well.