Eating a raw food lunch is one way of increasing your overall health without plunging off the deep end of going completely raw, though it is something to consider as a diabetic.
Eating raw has many benefits including the fact that you are not consuming any refined carbohydrates that leads to increased blood sugar levels, and ultimately to increased hunger levels something you are trying to reduce in order to lose weight.
Eating raw has many benefits to your overall health especially as a diabetic because eating raw food increases nutrient intake, and helps promote weight loss a critical element in reducing dependency on diabetic medication.
Here are just a few of the reasons you should pack a lunch with raw, unprocessed foods.
Eating raw unpeeled fruits and vegetables maintains the nutrient value that is usually discarded in cooking.
Apples, pears, peaches, plums and a host of other fruits can be eaten with the skin on.
This also has another side effect in that you are likely to chew your food longer.
Chewing food longer means you eat more slowly which means your brain has time to signal that it is full before you over eat.
Most vegetable are low in calories which means you can eat as much as you want of these vegetable.
I always pack extra baby carrots and celery sticks to help stave off those hunger pangs.
Raw foods are also higher in fibre than their process cousins.
Fibre is important in maintain good bowel health with less stress on your digestive system.
Evidence suggest that high fibre diets help prevent many diseases, including, colon cancer, heart disease, diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome and many other degenerative diseases.
Raw nuts and seeds form an important part of a raw food diet as they add protein, vitamins, minerals and Omega oils to the diet.
Nuts such as raw almonds and walnuts are standard fare, along with pine nuts and peanuts that come from other sources.
Seed such as raw pumpkin and sunflower seeds also add important dietary fibre and a store house of essential vitamins and minerals.
A raw lunch increases energy which can help make the afternoons more productive as you are more alert by avoiding the afternoon stupor brought on by highly process and nutrient poor foods My typical lunch consists of a handful of walnuts or almonds, plus some raw (unsalted please) sunflower or pumpkins seeds, along with half an unsliced apple unpeeled, a handful of baby carrots, some celery sticks, maybe a small floret of broccoli or cauliflower.
The possibilities are unlimited.
Make sure that you use as many colourful fruits and vegetables as you can as each color represents a different set of micro nutrients important in any diet.
Beets, purple cabbage, bright colored bell peppers, red onions, deep green broccoli and spinach make up an appetizing kaleidoscope of healthy eating.
Don`t forget about raw beans, they taste great and have the added benefit of helping control blood sugar levels.
To reduce exposure to toxins, try to select organically grown produce for the best results.
For lunch I don`t use any oil or vinegar or sauce of any kind.
Why kill all that flavour? You might think I am kidding at first, about the flavour, but once you have been on this diet for awhile, you begin to recover your taste buds, distressed by all that salt and heaviness that has been your typical lunch time fare.
You will come to love the crunch...
the lovely melding of a piece of apple eaten with a walnut, or the rich texture of pumpkin seeds as they light up that most delectable of all fruits...
that most seductively smooth and silky texture of the avocado.
At the beginning of this article I mentioned how healthy a raw food lunch is for you.
I've waited until the end to tell you a raw food lunch is also delicious...
because at the beginning you probably would not have believed me.