Besides ensuring that your diet is comprised of vegetables, fruits, grains, and seeds, what else goes into ensuring a raw food diet? By raw foods, the foods of choice cannot be altered or modified by heating above 115 degrees – this is lightly steaming. Though, it is not necessary that most raw foodists opt for a vegetarian or vegan perspective that cuts out all meat and dairy. Not only does this help optimize digestion even further, but it also offers the diet much less useless fats. Moreover, no processed foods or refined sugars are allowed. Though it may seem harsh, the raw foodist diet does allow for approximately 25% non-raw veggies and fruits. The 75% raw foods offer the body enough of its nutrients and minerals to substantially affect the healthy results desired.

With maximized digestive processes, your body is much less likely to store waste and mineral deposits in your organs, blood, and tissues. Less waste means less chance of chronic allergies, conditions, and diseases.

Currently, there are more than 100 different strains of Cancer, with millions suffering from one or another kind Cancer in the U.S. alone. Though the cause is unknown, many people contract Cancer through a genetic predisposition or lifestyle choice, such as smoking, sunburning, etc. Approximately half of all men will get Cancer in their lifetime, while about 1/3 of all women will suffer Cancer's symptoms. While there is no cure for Cancer, if caught early enough, the Cancer can be removed and the person can survive.

Cancer is basically the damage incurred to a DNA cell, which increases cellular activity causing them to multiply. Cells divide and multiply early in life, and as we age, these same cells typically only do so to repair damaged cells. When damaged cells in our DNA are not repaired, the onset of a Cancer has begun. Cancer cells, unlike cells in adults, divide and multiply as quickly as the cells in our younger years, and keep producing more and more abnormal or damaged cells. It starts to spread from its point of origin – breast, liver, lung, etc – and spread very rapidly, taking over the body part by part. Once organs, blood, and/or tissues are replaced with damaged Cancer cells, the consequences are typically fatal.

As noted previously, there is no known cure for Cancer though links have been found between certain lifestyle choices and hereditary factors. One of the less popular factors studied is what a person consumes in their diet. More and more scientists and doctors alike are studying how certain types of food interact with our bodies to either bolster health or weaken the immune system. This, in turn, determines what diseases and conditions we may be more susceptible to contracting.

Though, there is no direct link to subscribing to a raw food diet and the onset and spreading of Cancer, many strong links have been made between the positive effects of raw foods on the body. Moreover, many studies have been done on patients living with Cancer in different progressive stages of the disease who choose raw foods for their diet, and in many cases, the symptoms lessen and their Cancer can go into remission.

Why might it be that those who decide upon a raw food diet have less incidence of the quantity and appearance of Cancerous cells? While a number of other genetic and lifestyle factors are already be in play, there are two major factors as to why raw foods can contribute to less incidence of Cancer in people. As far as genetic predisposition that is something, unfortunately there is nothing any of us can do anything about; however, as far as lifestyle choices, there are a number of factors that can help you be less likely to contract Cancer. These are: maintaining regular exercise, not smoking, eating a healthy diet, and abstaining from environments with chemicals or other carcinogens present.

For one, recent studies report that having adequate amounts of Vitamins A, C, and K in your diet greatly reduces the risk of Cancer. All of these important immune-boosting vitamins are found most predominantly and in the largest of percentages in green leafy vegetables and fruit. The more supply of Vitamins A, C, and K that you can add to your diet, the more likely you are to prevent Cancer by boosting your immune system. A great way to digesting such nutrients, without your body doing much work is by a well balanced green smoothies. This can be obtained from our well researched ebook called Shake Formula that has over 70 well designed recipes with nutritional information, health benefits and great articles.

For two, raw foods-such as vegetables and fruits-promote a super healthy digestion system, which is central to overall strong immune function and bodily health. Your digestion system is a complex system of processes and function responsible for the overall use and storage of foods and elimination of food waste. If you are like most and eat a standard American diet of hard to digest animal fats, cooked vegetables, dairy products, processed foods, and refined sugars, your body has to work extra hard to digest these foods, as they don't offer the digestive-friendly enzymes that raw foods do. Only some of these foods will be digested, while the parts not digested will be stored in the organs, tissues, and blood of your body to basically ferment and poison your bodily functions. This, in turn, weakens the overall function of your immune system in protecting your body from harmful diseases such as Cancer.

By TTS Cofounder Botanical Chef Omid Jaffari