Importance of the “Live” Raw Food Movement
October 13, 2011 
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Whole Food Detox : Vegetables with Life
For a number of years, even decades, people who followed the raw vegan diet were small in numbers. They were even considered to be a fringe element and not at all part of the mainstream. But in the last several years, there has been a movement afoot that has made “living raw” more acceptable, or at least better known. Some signs of the increased attractiveness and acceptance of a raw food way of living can be seen in the increase in raw food books that are on the market, as well as an increasing number of raw food restaurants in more and more cities.
One event that assisted to bring the raw vegetarian food “phenomenon” into the forefront was the recent opening up an up-scale, five-star gourmet restaurant in the San Francisco Bay Area called Roxanne’s. Roxanne Klein, a leading chef and restaurateur, and her multi-millionaire husband David Klein, opened the new establishment spotlighting a menu that is purely made up of raw food recipe options.
Most of the dishes on the menu were developed by Roxanne and are special to her establishment, and are considered to be gourmet quality. In fact, her raw food recipes have achieved the attention of well-known chefs who have traveled to her restaurant to gain insights into her raw vegan menu.
Roxanne’s is just one example of a much greater movement that is becoming more popular. Today, in most large cities you can find several restaurants that have raw food meal solutions on the menu and even a few raw food restaurants that are devoted to only offering living foods.
John Robbins is a best-selling author and is widely known and regarded for his research and information about the food industry as a whole. He reports that there is a true food transformation in the works that has people favoring eating more foods that are organic and locally grown, which is at the heart of the vegan culture.
He indicates that this is out of both relevance for health matters and for protecting and trying to improve the environment as well. The vegan diet is a step beyond both the raw food diets and the vegetarian diets. Eating a raw food vegan diet excludes all meat and dairy, and also eliminates the cooking of fresh foods in favor of eating them entirely in their natural form.
The raw or natural vegan diet includes a wide array of fresh fruits and vegetables, as most would expect. In addition, this raw vegetarian diet also relies to a great extent on sprouted legumes and grains, nuts and seeds to supply protein and beneficial oils and fats. One of the primary reasons why eating raw food is considered to be healthy and beneficial to the body is because all of the food is packed full of living enzymes. The enzymes help with the digestive system and help deliver nutrients all over the system.
However, enzymes are destroyed, as well as many other vitamins and minerals during the cooking operation. When the nutrients are eradicated the body yearns for additional food in order to get the nutritional value required to uphold life. With the raw vegan diet, people get more nutrients from less food and often feel less bloated and stagnant and are therefore able to lose weight naturally.
