Raw food

Why should you try going raw? That’s a raw food diet, to the uninitiated! A raw food diet is one of the best ways to give your diet a health boost and get a bit more experimental with your food. We take a closer look at getting back to basics with food to boost your wellbeing.

What does ‘raw’ food mean?
Raw, ‘live’ or ‘living’ food is food that hasn’t been messed with – it’s whole, it’s not processed and it’s not cooked. Simple, right? It’s a great way to detox and lose weight, but it’s also a great option for boosting your health as it’s one of the best ways to get a big nutrient hit from your food.

So no cooked food?
The theory is that cooking food affects its nutritional value. The heat can destroy or greatly reduce the nutrient content in some of your fave veggies. However it’s thought that the reverse may be true for some foods, such as tomatoes, which contain more health-boosting lycopene when cooked.

Think skipping cooking means dull flavourless food? Think again! There are some amazing raw dishes than can be whipped up with surprising ease – from pad thai dishes to sweet treat and desserts, you won’t be missing out.

Who loves it?
Many a celeb has been associated with the raw food lifestyle. Designer Donna Karen famously lost 20 pounds eating raw, Demi Moore is rumoured to be a big raw food fan and Alicia Silverstone, long-time vegan, is also rumoured to love raw food.

Where can I get started?
Eating unprocessed, uncooked food is fairly simple, but making them taste good can be a bit more of a challenge. There are some awesome raw food blogs out there. We love thisrawsomeveganlife.com, which is packed with yummy recipes and inspiration, and the therawfoodsisters.com who are all about the raw food lifestyle. We also love new book Raw Food: French Style, which offers different gradations of ‘rawness’ – with hardcore recipes marked as 100% raw – and a Barely Cooked chapter. Why not try some recipes from the book? We love the Pear, Parsley and Lime Smoothie.