This 3rd myth that needs to be busted is that if you eat only raw food you will never get sick.  To put it plainly, this is not true, though generally speaking, eating high quality food with lots of fresh vegetables and fruit does help keep people much healthier than the average diet can.  But there is much more to health than food alone.  Staying healthy involves the whole person, not just what’s on their plate.

Eating well is a powerful tool for creating and sustaining a high level of health.  But let’s consider the other factors at play in to this equation.  Can you really be healthy if you’re chronically stressed out, sleep deprived and constantly on the go?  What if your emotional needs are not being met?  Or if you’re not getting enough fresh air, water, exercise, sunshine, and rest?  And consider the effects of all work and no social life, a messy and disorganized home environment, watching hours upon hours of tv, and spending time with negative, pessimistic people.

I think it’s clear that all of these non-food components of life greatly contribute to or take away from our state of health.  If these other areas of your life aren’t healthy and balanced, then your body isn’t going to thrive as well as it could.  One inevitably affects the other.

What I’m really describing here is that maintaining health involves the whole person, and it can be a journey to come into balance with yourself and all aspects of your life.  It’s common and easy to use food as a replacement for these non-food areas of our life that aren’t healthy.  Unfortunately it’s impossible to eat enough of anything to remove stress, loneliness, and pessimism.  And food can never replace a hug, a good night’s sleep, or a much needed vacation.

Stress, in particular, is one of the worst health “offenders” in our lives.  Did you know that stress actually creates an acidic environment in our cells and in our blood?   Stress is actually more detrimental to the body than some of the worst junk food.  It can literally poison the body regardless of how well you might be eating otherwise.

So although it’s important to be eating well, taking in a lot of fruits and vegetables, and a raw food diet helps greatly with this, it’s just as important- if not more so- to be aware of much more than just what you eat.  You need to be taking good care of yourself in every aspect of your life, AND eating optimally on all levels.  Preventing sickness is about much more than eating raw foods.