Next time you are at the food market and are reaching for that box, bag, can, bottle, or container, stop for a moment and take a look at what you are about to put into your cart and spend your hard earned money on.

Is that food?

Somehow in the hustle and bustle of our lives we have lost mindfulness of what our bodies need and how best to sustain ourselves. Mindfulness requires a level of awareness of who we are and how we have evolved.

We are primates.  And as primates, we do not need processed food and preservatives. Primates do not need food that had been altered, destroyed, modified, desiccated, slaughtered, preserved, sweetened, salted, or configured. Primates do need sustenance in its natural state. It is what our bodies know.

Food used to be living. Food used to be filled with vitamins, nutrients, enzymes, and nourishment in its natural and original forms. It is these forms that our bodies know. When we eat food in its natural state, our bodies recognize it and know exactly what to do with it to be sure it is used efficiently. The food is maximally utilized.

Following the consumption of raw food, our gastrointestinal tract responds with production of the proper ratio of acid, hormones, and enzymes to effectively metabolize the meal into portions that can then be broken down further into its natural components. These nutritious components are then transported across the delicate lining of our digestive tract to be taken up by the blood and then transferred to our many vital organs – organs that are yearning for proper nutrition so that they may function interconnected with other organs to create a healthy, working, energetic living organism.

With raw food, these processes occur seamlessly for it is the precise fuel the body needs. When natural food is adulterated, the intestinal tract, and all other organs, doesn’t really know innately how to respond. Often times, the response is an excess of acid, bile, or metabolic waste production. Our livers have to work over time to break down these foods, rid the body of any unnatural compounds, and find a way to salvage what nutrition may be left. The excess production places an undue burden on the functioning of these organs. When the organs become overwhelmed or tired, disease and poor health can result. And what of those bacterium – our natural flora – that work so hard to live in symbiotic harmony with us. They are left to live on the wastes of these unnatural food products and give us excess gas in return.

But with raw food, a metaphorical party exists within our bodies. These foodstuffs are assimilated so easily and thoroughly that our organs have no choice but to rejoice. So the next time you are choosing what to eat, remember what your body is asking for. Your body, and your whole being, will thank you.