Every time you read a different diet book, the author makes a logical argument and seems to back it up with solid science. Each time I read a new book on nutrition, I thought this person had the answer. I had no sense of discrimination, most of these nutritional theories sounded plausible at first.

After much experimentation I found out these gurus were wrong more often than not. They all had some valid and useful information in their books but their actual diets didn't work.

** So how do you know which diet to follow?

Are you like me and didn't know whom to believe? No matter how many diet books and theories I read, I still didn't have enough of an understanding to discern truth from falsehood. I remember reading and then doing the Zone Diet and later trying the Atkins Diet.

At the time of the reading, I was convinced that they were on to something. So I tried their diets. I wasn't trying to lose weight; I was looking for something to heal my depression, which these two diets claimed positive results with.

After trying the diets and really thinking about them, I realized they didn't work for me and they didn't make logical sense. My depression felt a bit better with the Zone Diet, but it didn't even come close to how much better I felt after eating a diet of at least 50% raw fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. By switching to 50% raw foods, my 6.5 years of depression went away in one day.

With the Zone Diet, you are required to eat a ratio of 40% carbohydrates, 30% protein and 30% fat at every meal. The author claimed that early humans ate that way at every meal.

But after thinking about it and further study I realized how ridiculous a theory that was. Early humans ate whatever they could find and I'm sure it varied from meal to meal. They didn't even know about fats, carbohydrates and protein. They were nomadic and certainly didn't have a steady food supply. There is no way possible that these early humans ate 40/30/30 at every meal or even close to that.

If it was so hard for me to be able to eat 40/30/30 consistently at every meal, I know it would be impossible for early humans to attain this without any knowledge of calories, protein, etc. Most natural food sources wouldn't even come close to a caloric ratio of 40% carbs, 30% protein and 30% fat. Therefore, I concluded that the whole basis for the Zone Diet was false.

Later I learned there were many inaccurate scientific claims in that book. The problem with science is that it usually looks at the part and not the whole. So many nutritional theories are based on partial truths that aren't true when looked at from the whole picture.

It's so easy to fool people with diet books. Unless you have a deep understanding of nutrition, it's difficult to determine the truths from the falsehoods.

I tried the Atkins Diet and didn't last on it more than three days. I just felt horrible. Eating these high protein foods and not having fruit or carbohydrates felt terrible to me.

Everything felt dead and it certainly didn't help my depression at all. There is a fabulous electric energy from fruit. You can't get that feeling on the Atkins Diet because no fruit was allowed at all in the early stage. How could this be a natural diet, when so many supplements are needed? I soon realized for myself that the Atkins Diet wasn't even close to being the ideal diet.

Eventually I discovered "Fit For Life," and later the raw food diet. I went raw and had my best results by far. My health, energy levels, happiness and even clarity of thought improved by leaps and bounds.

** The Easiest Way To Narrow Down The Diet Choices **

This is really simple when you think about it. But since you've been eating this way your whole life, you may not have considered this idea.

Any diet that contains cooked food is not a natural or ideal diet for humans. No animals out in nature cook their foods, nor do they get the diseases that humans get. But for some reason our pets get the same diseases as us. It's because we feed them cooked food as well.

The cooking process damages vitamins and minerals, destroys enzymes and turns the food into a poison. In 1912, French chemist Louis Camille Maillard discovered what is now called the Maillard Reaction. Maillard was trying to discover the chemical substances that made the actual tastes in cooked food.

In one experiment he measured the types molecules in a raw potatoes. Then he boiled potatoes and discovered that by just boiling, 420 new types of molecules were created. These molecules never existed in natural and unadulterated foods.

In fact, when you cook, you are creating hundreds of thousands, if not millions of new molecules that the human body considers toxic.

One piece of strong evidence that the body considers cooked food toxic is leukocytosis. Leukocytosis is an excessive rise in the white blood cell count when a food is consumed that was heated between 120 and 190 degrees Fahrenheit. Dr. Paul Kouchakoff discovered this phenomenon in 1930. He conducted over 300 detailed experiments at the Institute of Clinical Chemistry in Lausanne, Switzerland, and he discovered some interesting facts.

1. After a person eats cooked food, his/her blood reacts immediately by increasing the number of white blood cells. This is well documented fact called "digestive leukocytosis."

2. Conversely, eating raw food did not cause a reaction in the blood. In addition, if a food had been heated beyond a certain temperature (unique to each food), or if the food was processed (refined, added chemicals, etc.), this always caused a rise in the number of white cells in the blood.

3. If however these same raw and unaltered foods were then heated, the person would then again experience a pathological rise in his/her white blood cell count.

Cooking also allows us to eat foods that aren't a natural part of the human diet. We couldn't eat grains without cooking them. Most people won't eat meat without cooking it. Most people don't find making a meal of raw broccoli appealing either. These are signs that nature did not intend us to consume these foods.

There is much more evidence of the damage of cooked foods including the latest findings in 2002 by Swiss studies on the creation of excessive levels of a carcinogenic substance called acrylamide in carbohydrate rich foods cooked at high temperatures.

Cooking is chemistry. Have you ever noticed how much an egg changes color and texture by being cooked? This is obvious visual evidence of the molecular damage done in the cooking process.

Cooking denatures proteins and caramelizes carbohydrates. Caramelization produces six different levels of chemical reactions in the sugar molecule. It has been well known for years that heated oils and fats are carcinogenic.

Why do you think the body seems to attack itself with autoimmune diseases? It's because we've built our bodies up with foods that are not natural to the human body and our body identifies these substances as toxic invaders. Most people switching to a raw food diet, quickly find their arthritis and many other illnesses no longer bother them.

I started getting arthritis in my mid twenties. Now I'm 39 years of age and haven't had any signs of arthritis in years. Age is not what causes arthritis but an unnatural diet.

** Think About This **

There are about 700,000 species of animals, all of which all thrive on raw foods exclusively. Only humans heat and cook what they eat. There are no gourmet restaurants, fast food joints or pizza parlors in nature.

You can never achieve perfect health while still eating cooked foods. No matter how good you feel now, you could be feeling better. Are you going to be healthier with more poisons or less poisons in your body?

Therefore, the answer seems clear. One of the first things to consider before you chose to eat food is whether or not it is raw or cooked. Raw fruits and vegetables plus limited quantities of nuts and seeds, are the most natural and healthy foods for humans.

If you want to start improving your health rapidly then consider gradually increasing the percentage of raw fruits and vegetables in your diet.