Raw Food Dehydration health benefits

Many people are now choosing to follow a raw food diet for the extreme health benefits of eating only raw, unprocessed foods. One way to follow this type of diet is to dehydrate raw foods, so that they are conveniently available. Dried vegetables and fruits provide convenient and delicious additions to all types of meals.

Raw foods, also known as living foods, are uncooked, free from animal products, organic, easy to digest and highly nutritious. Anyone following this lifestyle consumes a large portion of uncooked, unprocessed and often organic foods in their diet.

Some raw food dehydration requires refreshing the dried food.  Refreshing is accomplished by soaking or cooking the dried food in water until the desired volume is restored.  Depending on the food being refreshed, you would adjust the amount of water and the length of time.

Here are some general guidelines for refreshing various dried foods:

• Root, stem and seed vegetables are soaked for 30 to 90 minutes in enough cold water to keep them immersed.
• Spinach, kale, cabbage, chard or tomatoes are refreshed by covering with warm water.
• Dried fruits are soaked in warm water.  Of course, dried fruits can be eaten as is, and do not need to be refreshed to enjoy.

Another reason raw food dehydration is so popular is that dehydrating does not subject the foods to high temperatures associated with traditional canning.  This has an added nutritional benefit because when a raw food is heated to an internal temperature of over 120F, the majority of its nutritional value is lost, particularly the enzymes.  In addition, the canning process also leaks out water-soluble minerals and vitamins, thus depleting the nutritional value even further.

Another added bonus of raw food dehydration is the ability to make a beverage like a juice or smoothie using the powdered fruits and vegetables from the dehydration process.  This allows you to boost the nutritional value and content of your raw food beverage even further!

Visit Excalibur Dehydrator online store to learn more about the health benefits, ease and convenience or raw food dehydration.