Posts Tagged ‘raw food benefits for weight loss’

Photo by Darwin Bell

In keeping with my mission to help people understand raw and living foods better, I’ve decided to start a weekly series here on Raw Food Switch.

This week with Mother’s Day just gone by, I chose to focus on raw foods for mothers. Moms can most definitely benefit from raw foods, whether they go all raw or not. I’m not a mom, so many of these benefits are those reported by friends and other raw vegans.

1. Increased Breast Milk

If you’re a new mother having a hard time providing breast milk for your child, you will be pleased to know that raw food can help. You don’t need to go all raw in order to get the benefits of raw food, and provide enough milk to your children.

Simply drinking 8-16 ounces of green leafy juices every day will help you produce more milk. Here’s a simple recipe that you can use and adapt:

• 5 Leaves of kale, swiss chard, romaine lettuce, bok choy, or other green leafy vegetable
• 2 Stalks celery
• 1 Apple
• Half a lemon

You could also add some carrots, cabbage, or more apples to change the taste!

2. Weight Loss After Giving Birth

Every woman wants to be able to get back to their slim selves after giving birth. Sometimes it’s a lot easier said than done.

If you’ve been eating a high percentage of raw foods before and during your pregnancy, you won’t have much to worry about.

On the other hand if you put on some weight that’s just not coming off, be gentle with yourself and take the transition to raw foods slowly. You don’t want to experience detox while you are breast-feeding.

Just know that incorporating more raw foods, green smoothies, and salads in your diet will get you where you want to be. Oh, and that little thing called exercise too, but you’re smart and you already knew that. ;)

3. Reduced Post-Partum Depression

Be sure to eat enough chia seeds, flax seeds, walnuts, and other nuts & seeds before, during, and after your pregnancy. These foods give you tons of healthful Omega-3 fatty acids, that prevent post-partum depression.

Plus if you continue to feed your brain with these healthy oily nuts and seeds, you will be able to better deal with stress.

Being a mom can be a stressful job, so give your brain the ability to “shut down” the stress response when it needs to with these Omega-3 foods!

Photo by Darwin Bell

In keeping with my mission to help people understand raw and living foods better, I’ve decided to start a weekly series here on Raw Food Switch.

This week I will be focusing on the benefits of raw food for weight loss. I know a lot of people come to raw foods to lose weight, and although that’s not why I started eating raw, there are definite benefits.

I will be covering this topic again later I’m sure, but here are a few to get you started!

1. What Goes In Must Come Out

When you’re eating whole raw foods, your body knows exactly what to do with them. This makes it easier for your body to digest the food, and allow it to pass through you.

It’s a simple equation: if what you eat doesn’t come out the other end, then it’s staying in your body, and making you gain weight.

With raw foods, which are all brimming with fiber and other natural cleaners, you can be sure that what goes in will come out. After all, you really don’t want to be carrying around food from 20 years ago, do you?

2. Nourishment For Your Body

When you eat raw foods you are feeding your body with the utmost source of nutrition.

Have you ever seen someone or done this yourself: you have a huge pizza or a burger and fries, and then you’re still hungry only half an hour later?

It’s most likely because the food that you just ate is really not feeding your body what it needs.

When you truly feed your body, you aren’t always starving, looking for your next meal. Your body stops sending you signals to eat, because it has what it needs to rebuild itself, heal, and make you a more vibrant and beautiful person.

3. Raw Foods Give You Energy To Exercise

If you’re overweight, you might feel tired and sluggish, which stops you from exercising. Everyone knows you should exercise daily, for at least 30 minutes. But what happens when you’re just too unfit and tired to actually exercise for that long?

That’s where eating raw food comes in. When you eat raw, you find yourself with much more energy, and maybe even more motivation to get fit.

Suddenly those two flights of stairs that used to haunt you become doable again. And it’s a beautiful upward spiral: if you eat raw you lose weight, you then feel like exercising, and in turn you lose more weight, which all leads you to a healthier body.

Join Us Next Time

Next time we’ll be discussing the benefits of eating raw vegan food for weight gain!