by: Michelle Bosmier
(NaturalNews) Out of all the weight loss programs that exist, very few are as simple and obvious as a raw food diet. People often forget about the calories that get padded on to foods through basic cooking techniques. Between oil and butter, as well as the general frying and baking process, a meal can have up to 25 percent more calories than the ingredients alone.
How does this affect general nutrition?
If there is a goal that relates to weight loss or a lower caloric intake for whatever purpose, it is advised that raw foods, as a replacement to cooked foods, will produce this result. It is common sense that cooking food will increase the calories, however most people do not consider that eating it prior to cooking is even an option.
What raw foods should be the focus?
The answer to this is simple: dark, leafy greens. Most people know through common nutritional trivia that dark leafy greens are essential to any standard of health. They are packed with vitamins and they have seemingly endless nutritional benefits. The irony of this strong stigma of dark, leafy greens is that many people do not even know what vegetables qualify as dark and leafy.
For those that prefer meal planning and grocery shopping with a list, it is recommended to deviate from that habit just once so that a stroll through the produce section of any grocery store can fuel ideas on all that is dark and leafy. So many vegetables can be used in simple and quick recipes that have great nutritional value, and just knowing the names of such ingredients will aid any Internet search for recipes. Specifically collard greens and dandelion greens are easy ingredients to begin exploring.
With so many weight loss methods that are filled with uncertainty and even potential health risks, raw food dieting offers a truly natural alternative to curb weight in a healthy manner. Additionally, raw food dieting is enjoyable and a voyage that will result in wonderful discoveries through tasting new flavors of foods that are familiar, and perhaps a few that are not!