You are what you eat has never been more critical. With an increase in heart disease, diabetes and digestive problems in the UK, as well as reliance on ‘fast-food’ and ‘ready meals’, now is the perfect time to take control of your health.

If you lack energy, your skin is ageing and you can’t seem to lose excess weight, you are probably not giving your body the fuel it needs to thrive.

Living foods are packed with life-enhancing nutrients; they’re superfoods that make you feel alive and help you live longer. But what are they?

Raw foods are essentially:

• Fresh vegetables and salads
• Fruits, nuts and pulses
• Seeds, beans and sprouted grains
• Probiotic foods, such as sauerkraut
• Spices, garlic, herbs and cold-pressed oils

Although a raw food diet doesn’t include meat, dairy, eggs or fish products, you can combine living foods in infinite ways to create mouth-watering dishes, bursting with flavour.

If you’ve a sweet tooth, you can create yummy smoothies, chocolate puddings, lush carrot cake and ice cream – to name but a few.

Of course, you don’t have to go raw completely. By incorporating more living fresh foods into your diet, you’ll enjoy the invigorating changes so much, you’ll want more…

The benefits of a living food diet

As soon as you start eating raw, high-energy foods, you can:

• Lose weight and reduce cellulite
• Develop radiant skin and lustrous hair
• Feel energised and relaxed
• Prevent illness and feel healthy
• Improve your powers of concentration
• Look and feel years younger

All this without plastic surgery! And to make life easier, living foods can be prepared in a variety of ways from juiced, chopped and dehydrated to pureed, soaked and sprouted.

Not only is a raw food diet versatile, but it’s easy to prepare too – saving you precious time.

How living foods work

Raw foods are full of enzymes, vitamins and minerals that rejuvenate your body naturally.

However, food heated above 38°c destroys all those life-giving enzymes, as well as between 50-80% of vitamins. Since enzymes activate several bodily functions, they can help you achieve peak performance in any area of your life.

You get less nutrition from processed, cooked food, which draws from your body’s enzyme reserves to break it down. Once these reserves are depleted, this can lead to health problems.

Food residues from undigested meals and toxins that can’t be broken down are stored in joint spaces, fat cells, arteries, and in body cavities. This can cause illness and disease.

A predominantly raw food diet is healthy eating at its best. Foods that cleanse your body really do nurture you inside and out…