Raw Food Diet Plan

Using a raw food diet plan is the best way to learn what raw foods to eat, how much, and when, so that you can create your own raw food diet meal plans and experience all the benefits of raw food. A list of raw foods and all the best tips will help keep you on track.

But, first you should always transition to eating a raw food diet.

This raw food diet plan will:

1. Help you understand that raw does not always mean healthy and includes only man's natural foods so you always feel your absolute best.

2. Keeps you satisfied and cravings-free so you are not tempted by unhealthy foods.

3. Provides suggestions for a shopping list and sample raw food diet meal plans.

4. Send you on a path you will never turn back from!

You can eat almost anything raw, but that doesn't always make it healthy. Although raw may be healthier than cooked, such as raw beef verses charred beef, a nice juicy apple is still healthiest.

In the attempt to appeal to a large range of people, many of the raw food diet plans out there tend to include raw cheese, dairy, meat, extracted oils, an abundance of high fat foods, and unhealthy stimulants such as garlic, onions, hot peppers, and salt. Although these foods are a step up from what people are used to eating, it is a step down from what is truly healthy.

So what raw foods are man's natural foods? It is as simple as 1, 2, 3.

1. Fruits

2. Tender, leafy greens

3. Small amounts of nuts and seeds and fatty fruits.

Click HERE for a complete list of raw foods to choose from.

These foods contain all the minerals, vitamins, amino acids, enzymes, proteins and carbohydrates the body will ever need, in just the right amounts.

How much food should you eat?

Perhaps the most important part of a raw food diet plan is understanding how much food you need to eat. Otherwise, you will have uncontrollable cravings and your health will begin to suffer.

Eating a lot of fruit is a new concept for people to grasp when starting a raw food diet plan and sometimes shocking as well. We are used to eating one piece of fruit and treating it like a snack. On a proper raw food diet plan, however, fruit will serve as your meals and you have to eat enough of it to ensure you are taking in enough calories. If you do not eat enough calories you will undoubtedly crave cooked food.

And although there are plenty of minerals in fruit, there are much more in greens. Most people should eat a minimum of a pound a day of tender, leafy greens. We are green eaters just like the gorillas and many long time raw fooders begin to have health problems if they exclude greens from their diets. A pound a day seems like a lot at first but it can easily be done by simply working your way up to it.

Sample Menus for averaging a 2,000 calorie diet

Menu 1

Breakfast: Smoothie with 5 bananas and 2 mangoes

Lunch: 5 oranges and 3 grapefruit

Snack: 1/4 watermelon

Dinner: Salad with 1 head romaine, 1 cup spinach, 1 red pepper, 1/2 avocado, 2 roma tomatoes, 1 cucumber, 1/2 cup corn.

Menu 2

Breakfast: 1/4 watermelon

Snack: Fruit salad with 3 oranges, 3 tangerines, 1 grapefruit

Lunch: Salad with 1 head romaine, 1/2 avocado, 1 tomato, 5 unsalted olives

Snack: Smoothie with 5 bananas, 2 cups strawberries

Dinner: Salad with 6 cups spinach, 1 red pepper, 1 ounce almonds, 1 cucumber

Menu 3

Breakfast: 1 honeydew melon

Lunch: 10 oranges

Dinner: 10 oz baby greens, 2 stalks celery, 2 cups grape tomatoes, 1 ounce cashews, 1 cup carrots.

Snack: Smoothie with 3 bananas, 2 cups pineapple.

Menu 4

Breakfast: 3 apples, 3 pears

Lunch: 6 mangoes

Snack: Baby carrots and guacamole made with 1 avocado, diced tomatoes and red pepper, cilantro, and lime.

Dinner: Salad with 10 oz iceberg, 2 tomatoes, 1/2 cup corn, 1 cup strawberries, 4 dates

Menu 5

Breakfast: Fruit salad with 2 cups red grapes, 2 bananas, 1 orange, 1 grapefruit, 1 apple

Lunch: Italian salsa lettuce wraps

Snack: 8 bananas

Dinner: Zucchini pasta with raw marinara

As you can see, fruit supplies the bulk of your calories with fat taking up a small percentage so that blood sugar and energy levels are not impaired.

Click HERE to read more about the importance of eating correct quantities of fruit and greens on a raw food diet plan, and my own experience surrounding the subject.

What times of the day should you eat?

It is best to skip breakfast to give the digestive system a break, or if you like to eat in the morning you should have an early dinner. However, most people find they have no difficulty passing up their morning meal during this raw food diet plan.

Once you begin your raw food diet plan, you may find you feel best and enjoy eating only two large meals towards the end of the day. For instance, a lot of the time I will fast throughout the day as I work and then exercise at 3:00 and eat a very large mono fruit meal around 5:00 followed a little later by a large salad.

On the other hand, when I work out early in the morning I know my muscles need some fuel afterwards so I will eat my meals earlier on those days. So, it all boils down to preference. Those who work out may want to plan their meals around the times at which they exercise, or you may even choose to eat many small meals throughout the day. No which way is better than any other. Just do what makes you feel healthy and strong.

However, whoever you are, you want to save the heaviest foods you eat for later in the day. So, avocado, nuts, seeds, coconut, olives, other fatty foods, and any cooked foods are best to be saved for the evening meal because these foods take longer to digest. If you eat an avocado early in the morning and then wish to have some fruit a littler later, the avocado may very well still be digesting in your stomach and the fruit you eat, which digests very quickly, will be held up in the stomach, creating some potential digestive problems as well as placing a burden on your energy levels. Even vegetables are harder to digest than fruit, which is why I save my salad for my last meal.

Shopping suggestions

Knowing what foods and how much you will need from the grocery store for the week can be confusing when you are starting a raw food diet plan, so it is helpful to have a well planned out shopping list. If you don't think ahead, you very well may end up hitting the super market every day or worse, succumbing to eating cooked foods if the refrigerator is lacking raw foods. Use your meal plans to estimate how much fruit you will need.

Buying a lot of raw food can also take a hit on your wallet if you do not learn how to be thrifty in the produce aisles, so remember these tips and you will become an expert raw food shopper.

1. Shop for 5 days worth

I have found that if I try to shop for a full weeks worth of food that I will have rotting food, an overstuffed refrigerator, and will end up running back to the store only for certain items.

2. Load up on bananas and watermelon

Buy a lot of these fruits because they are cheap, keep well, and are high in calories. I like to buy some bananas ripe and some green so that by the time I am done eating the ripe ones, the green ones are ready for me. If you notice some overly ripe bananas are on the verge of rotting then peel them and freeze them for future smoothies or "ice cream".

3. Buy berries on sale

Berries, especially organic, tend to be very expensive and low in calories for a raw food diet plan that relies on high calorie sweet fruits, so I rarely bother with them. If I want some for smoothies, I usually buy them frozen or wait for a sale.

4. On buying greens

For 5 days worth of raw food diet plan meals, I purchase 5 pounds of greens, being careful to choose different varieties so that my body gets the full spectrum of what nature has to offer. Baby greens, arugula, romaine, and iceberg are all good picks. Although I am not proud of my plastic usage, the pre-packaged greens tend to be less expensive than the loose greens.

5. Look for deals

In the summer it is MUCH cheaper to shop at produce stands than a grocery store and year round produce is usually less expensive at health food stores, although their selection is often more meager. Sometimes you can even seek to arrange a deal where you can receive older produce for a lesser fee or even for free, when these foods would otherwise be thrown out.

6. Stock up on dried fruit

Having dried fruit on hand is great for a late evening snack or something quick to grab when running out the door. Best of all, it keeps for a long time so if you run out of fruit you will have something to hold you over. Sun dried fruits are best and be careful there are no preservatives added.

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