Mike Adams | NewsTarget.com

Why would a person make raw foods part of their diet? There are a number of reasons, but perhaps the most important is the health benefit of eating raw foods. There is nothing healthier for the human body than the natural foods it was designed to consume. So, what was it designed for? Was it designed to consume liquid candy in the form of soft drinks, deep fried potatoes, Big Macs and Doritos? Of course not. Those things have only existed for a very short period of time, a few decades, whereas the human body has evolved over a period of at least 500,000 years.

What foods existed over all that time? Foods provided by nature -- raw, uncooked and unprocessed berries, nuts, seeds, vegetables, roots, fruits and so on. This is what was available to the body, so it only makes sense that raw foods offer perfect compatibility with the human body. That's one reason people might choose to eat raw foods, but it's not the only reason.

You might also decide to pursue a raw foods diet because of the taste experience. Even if you don't care about health benefits, the taste experience is incredible. A raw foods diet is not about eating salads, carrots and celery sticks all day long. It's nothing of the kind. A raw foods diet is about making cuisine -- like smoothies and blended recipes -- that you have never experienced in your life.

These experiences go way beyond what cooked foods, processed foods or restaurant foods offer. If you think about snack foods, processed foods and fast foods, you will realize that all those foods taste terrible unless the manufacturer adds chemical excitotoxins to enhance their taste. That's why manufacturers add monosodium glutamate (MSG), yeast extract, sugar and salt to their foods. These ingredients are specifically used to give some kind of taste to foods that otherwise taste dead and boring because the life has been cooked out of them or because the depth of taste has been milled out of them during the grain processing. Processed foods taste nothing like real food from nature. When foods are processed, cooked or put on a shelf in a grocery store, they're little more than a shadow of the original food.

If you think you've tried all kinds of foods before and you've never tried raw foods, you have no idea what you're missing. You're missing out on a whole universe of taste experience that goes beyond anything you've ever dreamed of. The first time you put raw foods cuisine in your mouth, you begin a whole new adventure. You take a journey into a new realm of food experience that will expand your reality because it's like nothing you've ever tasted before.

You might try a raw foods diet because you want to experience tastes you've never experienced before. I always find it funny when people who are addicted to restaurant foods and junk foods say, "You eat such a clean diet, Mike, but I can't live without my Big Mac!" From my perspective, I'm thinking, a Big Mac tastes awful compared to the foods I'm eating on a daily basis. And many of the foods I consume are raw foods.

Raw foods: the most exciting foods in the world

People think that when I eat healthy, I'm somehow living on really boring, drab foods all the time. But they're completely wrong about that. I'm living on the most exciting foods in the world. I'm living on foods that make all the processed, junk foods taste like dirt.

I'm not giving up anything by living a super-healthy lifestyle. In fact, I'm gaining in every area. The taste experience is more interesting and more expansive. The health benefits are phenomenal. The expanded awareness happens automatically. I'm not giving up anything at all! You might say, "Well, you're giving up a Big Mac, French fries, ice cream and pizza." So what? Once you've tried raw foods cuisine, everything else seems irrelevant.

I wonder, "Why would anybody eat junk food or restaurant food when they could have this raw foods cuisine? Why would you spend your money on a Big Mac when you could have a raw cacao smoothie made with avocados, real chocolate from Peru, chia seeds and stevia that tastes like the most delicious chocolate ice cream mint milkshake you've ever had in your life?" That's the level I'm living at with the raw foods diet, and, believe me, it is a whole different level that goes far beyond subsisting on junk foods, processed foods or restaurant foods.

I grew up in the Midwest, and the Midwest isn't exactly known for its cuisine. I used to think that ground beef and potatoes, with Velveeta melted on top, was a good meal. Years ago, that was the limit of my taste experience. Today, I know that that's just a tiny, little dot on the map of taste experience. Now, I'm living way out on the edge of that map, exploring new realms of taste experience with raw foods cuisine. These are foods that awaken your senses. I believe they actually enhance your intelligence, because having sensory complexity is the most effective way to create new connections in your brain. The taste experience can be an enlightening experience, and that's what you get with raw foods.

To learn more about raw foods, check out books like Raw In 10 Minutes, or Dr. Gabriel Cousens' Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine. You can find books and raw foods ingredients from RawFood.com, my top recommended source for raw foods via the internet.

By the way, my diet is currently about 50% raw foods. I make sure to eat a raw food element with every meal, and I drink at least one raw foods smoothie (blended with live sprouts that I grow myself) every day.

Josh's note: Raw Foods is one of the best diets possible because of the supreme amount of vitamins and minerals available. However, Raw Foods is not for everyone; some people may not be able to sustain a Raw Foods diet because the constant ingestion of raw (cold) foods can weaken digestion. As with all things, listen to your body and take everything from there. If you want to be cautious, I would suggest speaking with a skilled alternative medicine practitioner such as a doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine or Ayurveda.

For a long time now, there has been persistent taboos, rumours, and other such negative claims attached to the ideas of vegetarianism and veganism (and the perhaps lesser known raw foods diet). Many times, the media tries to portray these individuals as elite “PETA-soldiers” that will use whatever anarchy possible to release farmed animals, and other times we are lead to believe that these individuals are sickly and undernourished. Making these comparisons to these types of people is hyperbolic and absurd. In actuality, there are many reasons people choose a vegetarian-based diet: compassion, morals, taste, nutrition, and (most importantly) bioindividuality.

The taboos associated with a vegetarian-based diet, are many. Some of the strongest claims of criticism to these types of diets is that a lack of meat will lead one to become weak, unhealthy, and be deficient in vitamin B12 (often found in meat). These notions are absurd, and I believe that those who are so concerned with the health of those on these types of diets should really ponder about the Standard American Diet (S.A.D.) first. History is the best teacher, and because of that, we can see that throughout time there have always been individuals on these types of diets that are very healthy and long living. In Healing With Whole Foods, Paul Pitchford mentions:

There have been pure vegetarian traditions among the Hindus, Buddhists, and Taoists for twenty-five centuries, involving millions of people. Many such traditions exist in India, but since dairy products are widely used there, the best vegan examples are the previous generations that occupied large areas of China where consumption of dairy was nearly nonexistent. (Modern China has few vegetarians, although many Americans call themselves “vegetarian” with a diet containing more fish, eggs, dairy, and fowl than eaten by the typical Chinese)

An interesting record of the life of Kwan Saihung, one of the last highly trained Taoist adepts of China is preserved in the book The Wandering Taoist. His advanced level of martial arts and meditation training from childhood was supported by a pure vegetarian diet with the Zengyi-Huashan sect in a large Taoist mountain community. Chicken and fish were raised only for those who were sick. Extensive herbal therapy strengthened members of the community to help develop their skills in the healing arts and awareness practices.

B12 Anyone?
But what about the claims that a vegetarian type diet is deficient in vitamin B12? It is widely believed that the only source of vitamin B12 is in animal products, and this, is false. There are 3 food sources that are not from animals and can be counted on for sources of vitamin B12: fermented foods, algae, and yeasts.

Fermented foods can include miso, soy sauce, tempeh, pickles, amasake, nut and seed yogurts, and sourdough breads. In third-world countries where sanitation is poor, there is more B12 found in fermented foods than what we purchase in our supermarkets. Over the past almost 3 decades, changes in manufacturing, production, and sanitation have largely reduced the amount of B12 in fermented foods. >From Healing With Whole Foods:

Most other fermented foods produced in modern facilities, such as miso and soy sauce, are likewise virtually devoid of B12 even though various publications over the years have recommended them as valuable sources. One truth in the inaccurate recommendations is that fermented foods, because of their vital digestive enzymes, may very well be an aid in the absorption of B12 from other sources and stimulate B12 bacterial growth in the intestines.

Algae is known to be an excellent source of B12. Some of you may scratch your heads at the idea of eating seaweeds, but when you can tell your kombun from your wakame and your spirulina from your chlorella, algaes make a great addition to any diet. Micro-algae like chlorella, spirulina, and wild blue-green algae once upon a time were considered to have the highest amount of B12 of any food source. However, when these algae are taken directly for B12 deficiencies, it has been shown that these foods are simply not effective. Puzzling, indeed! Healing With Whole Foods adds:

This information is at first baffling, since spirulina and other micro-algae are excellent remedies for most cases of anemia, and B12 is essential for building red blood. Most cases of anemia however, are not merely a result of B12 deficiency alone; it may be that the massive amounts of chlorophyll, iron, protein, and other nutrients in micro-algae overcome anemia. In our personal experience, we have observed many people who have taken various micro-algae regularly for a decade or more, and when other sources of B12 are included in the diet, B12 deficiency does not arise. This suggests that the analogues in micro-algae do not interfere with other B12 in the diet.

Yeast (nutritional yeast, brewers yeast, etc.) has been a frequent source of B12 for vegetarians for decades. Yeast is very high in some nutrients, but low in others, so due to this one will want to make sure they balance out their diet (though really, everyone should do this; regardless of the diet they choose). One example mentioned is Healing With Whole Foods is phosphorus, which will deplete calcium; so either make sure to buy Yeast with added calcium or add more calcium-rich foods to your diet. Paul Pitchford suggests that “when buying nutritional yeast, the better grades are “primary” yeast, produced specifically as a food supplement”. He expands on this, saying:

This kind is usually grown on molasses or sugar beets, it is pleasant-tasting, and does not require further processing. Most yeasts, however, are a by-product of the brewing industry, grown on hops, grains, and malt. They pick up alcohol and carious chemicals, and develop a butter flavor. They are then processed to remove any bitterness, which lowers the general nutritional quality.

In a nutshell, there is no food that is the ultimate source of B12. What is required, is a mixture of B12-containing foods and a balanced diet.

But how healthy is it, really?
Well, accourding to Dr. Walter Willet, Dr. John Douillard, Dr. Neal Barnard, Mike Adams, and Paul Pitchford, the vegetarian diet is one of the healthiest diets one can follow. There is nothing wrong with good quality meats, but when one bases their diet on plants, etc., they are bound to take in more vitamins and nutrients than those who follow other diets. Vegetarian-based diets have some interesting perks to them. Studies have shown that Vegetarians are actually smarter than meat eaters! Such a diet can help to ward off high blood pressure, lose weight, and improve the health of those who suffer from diabetes.

Those looking to start themselves on a vegetarian-based diet are suggested to take a look at the People's Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM (A group of doctors that promote vegetarianism and “responsible medicine”)) Vegetarian Starter Kit. Likewise, I would strongly suggest Paul Pitchford's book Healing With Whole Foods: Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition.