Health Nut Q&A: What Are the Benefits of a Raw Food Diet?
Our Health Nut and Registered Dietitian, Molly Morgan, answers our customers’ most pressing health and nutrition questions and recommends her favorite products!
If you’d like Molly to answer one of your questions in a future blog post, please email your question to health@nuts.com. If we feature your question in The Nutty Scoop, we will also send you a pound of your favorite Nuts.com product.
Q: On the blog, you’ve mentioned the benefits of a raw food diet. Could you elaborate?
A: A raw food diet is an eating pattern that includes fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, sprouts, herbs, grains, and legumes that are unprocessed and uncooked. Proponents of the diet believe that cooking foods above a certain temperature (116-118 degrees Fahrenheit) will destroy healthy benefits of the foods. The foods omitted in this type of eating plan include meat, fish, poultry, dairy, and eggs.
One thing I really like about a raw food diet is that the variety of fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds mean that fiber consumption is high, which helps to keep you full. Another bonus is the emphasis on unprocessed foods, which are a great foundation for any eating routine.
If you are going to eat a raw food diet, it is best to review your eating routine with a registered dietitian and your health care provider to ensure that you are getting all of the nutrients that your body needs, including iron, calcium, and vitamin D. Keep in mind that heating some foods can increase the bioavailability of nutrients like lycopene, which is found in tomatoes.
Look for raw nuts like raw cashews, raw almonds, and raw pistachios on Nuts.com!
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