Eating a raw food diet is cleansing, delicious and invigorating. Your body and health can thrive as never before. Make sure you are getting all of the vitamins you need for health, before a health challenge from a vitamin deficiency occurs. Eating raw provides you with most of your required vitamins but there are certain vitamin supplements you may need to take also.

Background

Being on a raw food diet is necessary at times when you need to cleanse your body or when you are healing from an illness or disease. Some go on raw food diets to lose weight. Others eat raw food as a way of life. A raw food diet means eating foods that are raw and live, with a healing force, rather than "dead" from cooking. Processed food, for example, would be considered dead since any enzymes that may have existed were destroyed, along with most vitamins. Chemicals and preservatives were added also, leaving very few nutrients if any. A raw food diet consists mainly of fruits, vegetables, sea vegetables, seeds, nuts, grains and sprouts. Almost all of the vitamins are provided, with the exceptions of vitamin B-12 and vitamin D.

Vitamin B-12

Even though B-12 is found mainly from animal sources such as meat, eggs, dairy and fish, most people today are deficient in this vitamin, whether they eat only raw food, are vegan (eating no animal products) or meat eaters. The reason is because the production of intrinsic factor, a substance produced by your stomach cells to absorb vitamin B-12, decreases as you get older. Supplement your raw food diet with vitamin B-12. Prevent anemia (low red blood cells) also by adding B-12 to your raw food diet. Get your B-12 from spirulina, a blue-green algae, which comes in tablet form or as a powder. Take 25 mg of B-12 supplements daily. Get B-12 shots only if needed and advised by your doctor.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D is another vitamin most people are deficient in, not just vegans, vegetarians and those on raw food diets. The highest food sources of vitamin D are mainly found in fish and dairy. Get some vitamin D in raw mushrooms. Get out in the sun for a few minutes each day, without sunscreen, for some vitamin D. Take vitamin D supplements, preferably vitamin D3, which is absorbed a little better by your body. Prevent cancer and heart disease by taking 800 IU to 1000 IU of vitamin D supplements per day. Children eating raw food can take 400 IU daily or a little more if they are deficient.

Tips

Dr. Mehmet C. Oz and Dr. Michael F. Roizen, authors of "YOU: Staying Young", recommends the best way to take your vitamin supplements: "Take half in the morning and half at night to keep a constant vitamin level in your blood during the day." Purchase your vitamins in natural health food stores or online.

Source:

Living and Raw Foods

Why is Vitamin B12 Deficiency So Common?

The Vegetarian Resource Group: FAQs About Vitamin D