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The Raw Food Diet

The raw food diet is as much a life-style as an eating plan; a naturalistic approach which excludes, in addition to cooked and animal foods, processed and refined ingredients.

In the ever-hungry quest for new fads and health panaceas, the raw food diet, with adherents such as Woody Harrelson and Donna Karan, is growing in mainstream popularity. Unlike many other bandwagons however, raw foods (also referred to as ‘living foods’), offer unarguable health benefits and one can reap rewards even as a 50% dabbler. To be a 100% extremist takes commitment, discipline and education and is best introduced gradually to avoid the overwhelm of inevitable detoxification.

A food is essentially ‘raw’ if it is kept below 115 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature above which enzymes are destroyed. Eating raw food ensures an opulent intake of nutrients, fibre, healthy oils and life-giving enzymes. Raw food is much more easily digested, taking half to a third of the time of cooked food, around 24-36 hours compared to 40-100 hours. Raw vegetables and fruits, are also predominantly alkaline so help to optmize the pH balance of the body (around 60-80% alkaline foods being recommended for an internal environment resistant to disease).

Whole foods, sprouts and raw juices are favoured in a raw food diet, and dehydrator ‘ovens’ effectively concentrate the flavour of certain raw foods to assist in the creation of a mind-boggling array of as-cooked dishes. I’ve eaten a raw food pizza that unbelievably contained no wheat, no cheese and no cooked ingredients! It tasted delicious and I was stumped to figure out what it was actually made of!

Raw Power

Raw plant foods are healthy, regenerative, cleansing, energising, predominantly alkaline, and packed with vitamins, minerals, healthy oils, enzymes and antioxidants that promote health, beauty and longevity. As well as enhancing digestion and protecting against aging and disease, a raw food diet has noted weight loss benefits and promotes clear, beautiful skin.

The benefit of raw food becomes even more apparent in view of the effects cooking can have on constituents in food.

The Effects of Cooking

Arthur Baker writes in Awakening Our Self-Healing Body, ‘Overly cooked foods literally wreck our body. They deny needed nutrients to the system since heat alters foodstuffs such that they are partially, mostly, or wholly destroyed. Nutrients are coagulated, deaminized, caramelized and rendered inorganic and become toxic and pathogenic in the body.’

The indigestible end products of cooked foods can linger in the gut, clogging the intestines and interfering with healthy elimination. They can cause a build-up of toxins, mutagens and carcinogens. Carbohydrates ferment, proteins putrefy and fats become rancid, creating free radicals that enter the blood stream.

Lipufuscin, the ‘aging pigment’, is an example of a waste product created from damaged proteins and fats. It accumulates in the skin and nervous system and is visible as brown ‘liver spots’ on the skin and eyes.

Toxic by-products and excess free radicals from cooked foods can weaken the immune system and accelerate the aging process.

Enzymes

Cooking destroys enzymes in our food. These delicate, heat sensitive proteins can destabilise at temperatures as low as 115 degrees Fahrenheit, hence even light steaming can render them inactive.

Enzymes, so abundant in a raw food diet, are highly functional catalysts involved in various health-regulating tasks in the body, such as breaking down food in digestion, delivering nutrients, carrying away toxic wastes and strengthening the endocrine and immune system. All living cells contain enzymes which function in cooperation with other minerals. As there is not an unlimited supply of enzymes, eating them in our food lifts the burden off organs to produce digestive enzymes which allows a greater use of enzymes for other metabolic purposes, freeing up more energy for the performance of other tasks.

Nutrients

In cooking food we can loose up to 97% of water-soluble vitamins (B and C) and 40% of fat-soluble vitamins (namely A, D, E and K).

Proteins

Heat denatures proteins, modifying their molecular structure and rendering them unusable. The bacteria in the gut feeds upon undigested proteins that tend to putrefy, giving rise to toxins. Raw foods provide healthy, readily available protein in greater supply without undigested residue.

Fats

Oils are heat, light and air sensitive. Heating can destroy the goodness of an oil and alter molecules generating toxins and free radicals. Unrefined oils that are cold-pressed contain all their natural healthy substances (olive oil for example is rich in phytonutrients, flaxseed oil a great source of omega-3 fatty acids and so on). Oils should be kept refrigerated in dark sealed containers.

Fibre

Fibre is essential for health and helps to flush out the intestines, scrubbing them clean and aiding elimination. With cooked food fibre becomes a soft substance, losing its brush-like quality. It can partially rot, ferment and putrefy in the gut, causing toxins, gas and heartburn.

Super Raw

Eating superfoods enhances a raw food diet even further. Superfoods are the most potent, antioxidant rich, nutrient dense, disease fighting, anti aging, beautifying, mood enhancing, immune boosting foods on the planet. Raw superfoods ensure an optimum intake of nutrients and phytochemicals for optimum health.

Raw Food Diet For Your Pets

A raw food diet for dogs and cats is both natural and species-appropriate. Not only does it provide a rich supply of nutrients, antioxidants and enzymes, but ensures a move a way from the low grade, inappropriate, highly processed and toxic ingredients found in commercial pet foods that can damage your pet’s health. If embarking on a homemade raw food diet for your pet (sometimes referred to as BARF), thoroughly research the area first as nutritional balance is essential.

Copyright 2006 Sylvia Riley

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Hotels In Nairobi – Pampering Guests With Recreational Facilities

Every year thousands of visitors descend upon the airport in Nairobi to partake of the many delights that the East African country of Kenya has to offer. Some come here to strike multi-million dollar business deals in one of the most vibrant economies in the region. Others come here with their friends and families to take a sightseeing tour of the vast savannah where lion and zebra roam freely.

To cater to the vast traffic that passes through the country every year, many hotels in Nairobi have come up. They range in all styles and classes to suit the whims and fancies of every traveller. There are medium range hotels, inexpensive budget hotels and lavish five-star hotels. No matter how much money the traveller has in his pocket, he will find that there is a hotel that conforms to his requirements.

The large five-star hotels understand that their elite guests want to be pampered in the class and style that they are used to. Elite visitors pay a lot of money to book a room in such hotels. Naturally, they expect the standard to be as high as the room rates. So what do these hotels do? The first thing they do is to make sure that the rooms in the hotel are adorned with the most elegant furniture possible. Then they ensure that the dining is of the highest standard.

But luxury hotels in Nairobi understand that they have to go out of their way if they have to distinguish themselves from the competition. They have to provide services that go beyond the expectations of the visitor. They choose to use their creativity to arrange a wide range of recreational activities for the benefit of their guests.

1. The hotels are invariably equipped with a fine swimming pool. Parents can teach their kids to swim here. The whole family can bask in the waters. After a refreshing dip, they can even have their breakfast or lunch on the pool deck.

2. The hotels arrange outings for their guests. Everyone knows about the delights that the African wildlife has to offer. But there are many things to do inside the city as well. Nairobi has a railway museum that gives a fascinating account about the history of East African Railways. There are cultural villages that give an insight into the lives and traditions of African tribes. The concierge arranges all these outings and also tells the visitors what more they can do in the city.

3. Many hotels have excellent shopping facilities on their premises itself. Quite a few of these hotels are established in the heart of the city where some of the best shops are located. The locations are carefully chosen by the hotels so that their guests can combine entertainment and shopping during their stay at the hotel.

The list given above is just the tip of the iceberg. Each individual five-star hotel has its own unique amenities that separate it from the others in the field. These features add the extra touch that visitors are looking for in a world class hotel.

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The Top 3 Video Tricks for Beneficial Results In Financial Destination

Everything a person pursues begins with a strategy, your very best comprehension of the best way to get it done. It will also help immeasurably to obtain trustworthy specifics of ways to get to where you desire to proceed. You’ll discover a few practical strategies outlined in this article that will assist you forward to being successful. With such recommendations offers you a good sharp edge and definitely will enhance your probability of accomplishment.

When you begin to market with video for Financial Destination, it will be necessary to carry out things effectively. If you don’t, the effects could very well be disappointing. You could discover yourself waiting for traffic that will never come, or maybe even traffic that has no interest in FDI.

Here is a valuable list of steps you can take to step away from a tough time.

1. Create a video with the right audience in mind

You’ll have to create a video with the right audience in mind because it prevents you from making a video that doesn’t make people want to find out more information at your website. Failing to get this done could let you miss out on a lot of potential leads and prospects for Financial Destination. And so don’t overlook this important pointer!

2. Learn how to offer value to your audience

Almost as important as creating a video with the right audience in mind whenever dealing with the strategy to market with video for financial destination is learning how to offer value to your audience. Understand undoubtedly this is really a crucial factor. It might assist with a steady flow of targeted leads who recognize you as a leader and someone who can really help them build their business, and that is something which everybody trying to get results in FDI wants.

3. Have a call to action

Lastly, when marketing with video for FDI you should be sure you have a call to action. This will give people a chance to learn more about what you have to offer them, which is a vitally important aspect of getting results in financial destination. If you don’t, you might let people get away instead of turning them into hot and targeted leads for your business — and you’ll almost certainly recognize that that may not be very good!

As was stated in the beginning, regarding the strategy to market with video for financial destination, you’ll really need to be sure you never make the kind of mistakes that could finally end up leading to waiting for traffic that will never come, and perhaps get traffic that has no interest in FDI. You really want to build a huge and solid Financial Destination team, and you can get that result by closely following the above recommendations.