What is Raw Food Combining and why is it important? Part II

What is Raw Food Combining and why is it important?

Part II(Continuation from March 17, 2017).

As a follow up to last week’s topic of Food Combining CLICK HERE to read it :

In light of an ever present push to restrict one's calories to lose weight, I am strongly emphasizing the necessity to approach and maintain a healthy weight without deprivation. If one is consuming the most optimal of all diet, restriction is NOT a factor. Eat to one's heart’s content rings through. We are talking about eating until sufficiently satiated here. It is near impossible to meet the body’s requisite caloric and nutritional needs and gain unnecessary weight whilst on a whole food raw vegan diet. If the body’s basal metabolic rate (resting metabolic rate - energy required to keep the body alive) is compromised, this may not augur well. As with everything else, the deficits need to be corrected before one may benefit effectively from such a diet, amongst other things of course.

Let us consider raw plant foods, such as potatoes, yam, pumpkin or the squash family as well as say eggplant. These are foods generally higher in complex carbohydrates/starches which are harsher on the digestive system. These are not our ideal foods, they do not hydrate the body as well as fruits and should be had in smaller quantities, if consumed at all.  My suggestion on these is to simply treat them as any vegetable and see how they work for you. If not the best of   combination for you, be assured, they  fare well with leafy greens and most vegetables and non sweet fruits such as tomatoes cucumbers and zucchini.   Additionally, they can be prepared and consumed in their raw, natural state with a little innovation( marinating in raw apple cider vinegar et al and/or the use of a paralyzer ). The fact that they require some 'processing' before they can be deemed 'palatable', is indicative of how much a non ideal food they are. This is my personal perspective as a raw vegan.

In as much as I have mentioned the various food  combination recommendations, it is most beneficial to have what are called 'mono meals' - these are meals which comprise solely of one type of fruit ( or other plant food of your choice ~ ideally a HCLF), one such example would be a meal of strawberries only, say 500-700+g in total. This allows the body to more effectively digest and assimilate the nutrients from one type of food. Because digestion begins in the mouth, or as soon as the olfactory nerves sense the aroma of the food type,  upon initial mastication, the brain receives signals to digest ' x food', enzymes are then released to digest the identified food. One can ascertain here why food combining therefore is so crucial. After mastication, the stomach is already ' prepped' to continue the digestion process with the requisite released enzymes and stomach.

The methodology of consumption coupled with digestion expels much energy, energy which  can best be optimized by :

1. Eating the right foods in abundance - as many fresh fruits and vegetables raw as will keep you satiated.
2. Combining (or not combining at all - mono medaling) these fresh fruits and vegetables for/at each meal.

As a staunch advocate of the 100% raw vegan Lifestyle, it is no wonder why the above principles are key components to successfully achieving a healthy diet. Why have I not addressed the topic of cooked vegan foods ? Simple, I wish only to stress what will allow us to thrive, one major part of the equation is LIVE foods! So let’s keep it RAW.