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Raw

CAN the raw power of foods be the best way to health?

Advocates of eating only uncooked fruit and vegetables argue that food is created perfect and that every step we take it away from that natural state detracts from its nutritional content, making it less ''alive''.

Karen Knowler is co-author of the book, Feel Good Food - A Guide To Intuitive Eating, and director of Fresh Network, a support organisation for people wanting to adopt a raw diet.

She has eaten only raw foods for the last two years and said: ''When I ate traditionally I had huge meals but always craved something else.

''What I now realise is that I was still hungry for nutrition, not hungry for food.

''Cooked foods cause mucoid plaque to build up on your gut wall and it forms a sort of internal shield which prevents your body from absorbing goodness from your food.

Which is why thin people can often eat huge amounts but still feel hungry and do not put on weight.

''As well as giving optimum nutrition - they are full of essential vitamins, minerals, amino acids, antioxidants and enzymes - raw foods also cleanse you internally at the same time.

''Our body is designed to live on raw foods, our ancestors only started mucking about and heating it fairly recently, and it is much healthier.''

If you fancy moving towards a diet with more raw foods, Karen recommends starting by replacing one meal a day - preferably breakfast.

She said: ''Simply have as much fruit as you want. At lunch have perhaps a baked potato but add a very large and interesting salad. Over time you will find that your taste for 'clean' food increases and you do not want rich, stodgy tastes.

''Some people who go straight from a traditional to a raw diet may experience the same symptoms as a de-tox, headaches and possibly some dizziness.

But that will pass very swiftly and they will soon reap the benefits.

''The question most asked is if the diet is boring, but I can honestly say that, although you are eating the same types of food all the time it tastes different each time because your taste buds are not dulled.''

ALAN Madeley, from Prestwich, is former butcher who for 25 years meat twice a day. Over the last 12 months, inspired by his son who used to work for Fresh Network, he has been increasing the amount of uncooked fruit and veg in his diet.

And for the last nine weeks his diet has been 100% raw.

He said: ''I used to have what I called a nervous stomach. Every time I went anywhere, even the cinema, I would feel sick or even sick.

''My son suggested food combining - never eating protein and carbohydrate at the same meal - and I ate meat and lots of vegetables. Gradually I began eating more and more raw vegetables.

''Then my wife, who is a vegetarian, and I, went camping and we didn't bother taking a stove. We lived on fresh fruit and raw vegetables for week and then when we got home we just continued.

''I have never felt better. My stomach is no longer upset. I have lost a stone and a half in weight have more energy than ever before. have not had a cold in 12 months and have not troubled my doctor.

''There is so much sense to eating just raw food and I can really recommend it. Interest is growing and we have regular meetings at home to inspire people about the power of raw food.''

Links
The Fresh Network