Not everyone has to eat a 100% raw food vegan diet to be healthy. As long as you can eliminate refined sugars and processed starches first, then work towards eliminating red meat and cutting back on dairy, you will be in good shape. The raw food diet list includes fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes and sprouts. There are plenty of good raw food cookbooks to teach you how to prepare delicious meals with these healthy foods. If you can incorporate more foods from this list into your diet while eliminating unhealthy foods, you can truly improve your heart health and overall wellbeing.



Ten foods in particular are especially important for heart health. If there is one raw food diet list to remember, it is this one:

?Almonds

?Apples

?Bananas

?Cantaloupe

?Carrots

?Flax

?Oranges

?Papaya

?Tomato

?Walnuts.

Almonds are an important part of the raw food vegan diet (or the semi-raw diet) because they've been shown to reduce cholesterol and are rich in healthy fats and vitamins. Apples boost heart health with a phytochemical called Quercetin that is believed to have protective effects against heart disease, as well as cholesterol lowering pectin. Bananas are a source of potassium, which is an electrolyte known for regulating fluid balance and maintaining healthy blood pressure, and cantaloupe contains the blood thinning substance called adenosine. Carrots are an especsially important part of this raw food diet list because they not only contain antioxidants for heart health, they also boost vision.

Many raw food cookbooks recommend adding ground flaxseed to meals, and for good reason. Flax seeds are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which reduce heart disease risk. Oranges also fight heart disease by lowering cholesterol levels with pectin, while papayas are an excellent source of antioxidants including vitamin C, carotenes and flavonoids. Tomatoes boost heart health with the phytochemical lycopene, which has been shown to aid in the prevention of heart disease, and walnuts have a high content of monounsaturated fats that have been shown to lower cholesterol levels. Walnuts also contain arginine, which is an essential amino acid.

Even if you don't eat a 100% raw food vegan diet, you can increase your heart health by eating more foods from this list.