Do Raw Foods Help To Detoxify The Body?

Many proponents of raw food diets say that they help to detoxify the body. Why do raw foods have a cleansing effect on the body?

This article, which I first wrote and published on another website in 2008, explores this question.

Raw Food Detox Diet Effects

How and why does a raw food detox diet clean the body? The way I see it, this works in three main ways.

Firstly, our bodies are always producing toxins, often by-products of digestion or metabolic processes in the body. We are also always ingesting some form of toxins in our food intake.

Cooking causes the formation of harmful free radicals in food. When we eat cooked foods, we are thus increasing our toxin intake. The reverse is hence also true – when we eat raw foods, our bodies have a reduced toxin load, and one will feel lighter, healthier and more energetic.

The next contributor to raw food detox diet effects is the fact that they contain high levels of vitamins, minerals, enzymes and minerals, many of which neutralize toxins and harmful substances and carry them out of the body. Very directly, these beneficial natural chemicals are detoxifying the body.

Finally, food to our bodies is like bricks to a building – the better the quality, the stronger and more study the end product will be.

My understanding of how the human body works is that it always tries to use the best food and nutrients available to build itself. When one feeds his or her body junk, the body can only use that junk food to build, heal and regenerate itself. The result is thus a weak and unhealthy body.

But when we eat a mixture of good and bad foods, our bodies will, to its best ability, try to use the good foods, while discarding the poorer ones.

Now, most of us have been feeding ourselves processed and junk foods for years. Our bodies have thus been put together using relatively poorer materials.

Raw food detox diet effects take place when we begin to eat high quality raw plant foods. This is because our bodies gradually attempt to replace the poorer quality ‘bricks’ it had been given all these years with the better ones now being provided.

The result of the abovementioned points – detoxification due to eating raw foods, and a healthier body.

On thing to take note of, though – when undergoing detoxification using raw foods, or any sort of detoxification for that matter, it is important to be prepared for some possible effects, commonly referred to as ‘detoxification reactions’.

Click here to read more about the health benefits of eating raw foods.