T-minus-seven days to raw.

What is a raw diet anyway? I don't know. That's what I hope to find out. So far from the little I've read, a raw diet consists of vegetables, fruits, nuts & seeds. Seems to me to be a very primitive diet. Like what our primeval ancestors used to eat, sans the occasional barbecued wooly mammoth.

It is dairy-free, gluten-free and vegan.

And of course, everything is eaten uncooked.

It appears, from the little bit of poking around I've done on different blogs, that there are some disagreements among Raw Foodies regarding exactly how far to take the "raw" thing. Is it ok to eat dried fruits? How about dried herbs? Or do those have to always be fresh? I don't reckon it's a big deal. Me, I won't hesitate to eat raisins or dig into my spice rack whenever I please.

Why is everything uncooked? I'm no scientist. I skipped chemistry in high school because nobody liked the teacher. But according to some sources I've read, cooking food destroys enzymes that aid in digestion, and generates carcinogens in food.

I don't know. It sounds like the chant of a militant health-food hippie wacko. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

The chemistry is not the reason I'm trying a Raw diet.

Another "Unreason" is the environmental reason. Some Raw Foodie bloggers claim that the Raw diet is better for the environment. They say if everyone went raw we'd have no need for nuclear power, there'd be less food packaging & less pollution, we'd save the trees and the oil reserves, there would be less carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, we'd save the whales and the polar bears, and life would be sunshine and rainbows.

Maybe that's so. I'm not a tree-hugger.

My reasons for trying a Raw diet are much more selfish. Because it's all about me! I'll get into some of those reasons in future posts.