Eating Raw in Rainbow Beach

Rainbow Beach Massage and Natural Therapy hosted a Raw Food workshop where participants sampled over nine creations from raw chocolate cake to chai made on almond milk, by Jamie Young and Rachelle Rose from Raw Earth Creations.

The concept of including more raw food in your diet is not new. Dietitians have been extolling the virtues of including more fresh fruit and vege in the day for  decades. They also encourage back to basics – the more unprocessed our foods are the better!

Eating raw is also something that Dr Mark Cull, Principal Dentist from Channon and Lawrence Dental Centre talks about to his patients.

Dr Cull says, “The obvious benefits of eating raw foods in your diet over cooked or processed foods is the chewing action, which produces more saliva therefore encouraging beneficial bacteria in the mouth along with the abrasive action of the harder food against the surface of the teeth and gums.”

However after eating any food rinsing with water is always advised and brushing twice a day and flossing daily is recommended to have healthy teeth and gums.

“A lot of children in our modern society have breathing difficulties which can be attributed to their facial structure and this is directly linked to diet.  It has only been over the past 400 years that degeneration has occurred with a narrowing of the jaw, causing crooked teeth and mouth breathing which leads to symptoms such as sleep apnoea, behaviour problems and effects on immune responses.

“Dr Weston Price looked at the effect of the change from traditional diets to modern diets (of highly processed and refined foods) on primitive and isolated groups and his study showed that within the short space of two generations the change in diet had significant effect on the facial features of the grandchildren, with pinched nostrils and narrowed face, deformed dental arches and crowded teeth.”

Dr Cull says moving to a diet which incorporates lots of fresh vegetables and wholegrains in their natural state will benefit everyone’s dental health.

“The concern with a diet of commercial foods is the fact that they are highly processed and therefore have low nutrient content, are often extremely high in sugar content and contain preservatives which our body then has work harder to process and eliminate.

“Often this diet overstimulates the immune system which leads to an increase of mucus in the airways exacerbating mouth breathing.  Our best alternative is food prepared at home with whole fresh foods and that way we can control the amount of refined carbohydrates, sugars and preservatives our family are eating.”

But how do you begin? 

Dr Cull said, “An easy way to start is at dinner when you are preparing vegetables ask yourself; ‘do I need to cook these, or are they better for me and my family in their natural state?’  This also saves time and they taste great.”

His suggestions for introducing more raw in the diet include:

• A green smoothie is a great way to have children eating green leafy vegetables, just be careful not to overload it with fruit.
• Snacks – activated nuts and seeds or incorporate them on your salad; vege sticks with homemade pesto or hummus.
•   Breakfast – soak nuts and seeds overnight in water; place in blender then mix in coconut yoghurt; banana; grated apple; berries of choice.

Contact Channon and Lawrence Dental Centre or Raw Earth Creations to hear more.