Real food: The foundation of a healthy life

The foundation of the Raw Energy Philosophy for living a healthy, energetic life is food.  Quality, whole foods feed and fuel every cell in your body and your brain, giving you the physical and psychological ENERGY you need to live your life successfully.

The Raw Energy philosophy is based on the belief that we are all different and no one ‘diet’ works for everyone. However, there are some common principles that do apply to us all:

• Drinking quality water
• Eating plenty of multi-coloured vegetables, mainly organic
• Eating fruits that are in season
• Eating quality protein such as beans and pulses, or fish and meat
• Eating healthy fats to feed your brain and cells
• Eating quality grains to boost your energy

The 80/20 rule

Our approach to eating healthily is not dogmatic in the sense that we appreciate that our modern world is surrounded by an abundant of processed foods and drinks, and it’s hard not to indulge occasionally. That’s why we believe in the 80/20 rule.

If you’re a healthy person and you’re focused on maintaining a healthy weight, feeling great and reducing the risk of getting a degenerative disease in the future, then eating 80% of your diet focused on the above principles will reduce your risk of getting heart disease, diabetes or cancer in the future.

So what goes in the 20%? All of the foods and drinks that are sugar-based and will give you energy, but few other nutrients, commonly referred to as ’empty calories’. I am talking about refined carbs such as packaged breakfast cereals, white breads, junk foods, soda drinks, alcohol. Do take care not to get these numbers the wrong way round!

So give do your future self a big favour and start to work towards the 80/20 rule of healthy eating and keep a journal to track your how you feel as you make progress.

Here you’ll find a healthy eating resource centre containing many articles, tools and strategies to help you reduce your intake of processed sugars, increase your consumption of real food and drink and lose weight and feel great in the process.