If you are on a diet, chances are you are struggling with it. You may be growing weary of paying so much money for diet plans, memberships, and packaged food.

Driving to a diet center and talking to counselors who don't really care, then picking up your cardboard food for the next week could be wearing thin.

If you've tried an on-line program, you may not be getting the response you want, especially if you need more personalized attention.

With many diet plans you have to make calorie calculations and compute carbohydrate percentages.

If you just want to eat plain food that tastes better and is more nutritious, try the raw food diet. Also known as the living food diet, there is no cooking because all food is consumed in its natural form as it was grown.

Fruitarians promote consuming fruits, vegetables, and sprouted seeds, as well as the juicing of fruits and vegetables.

Proponents of raw food state that this form of eating is:
1) More nutritious. Heating kills up to 50% of the protein, vitamins, minerals, and enzymes in food. In addition, our bodies digest raw food easier and faster, which moves toxins out of them faster.

2) More flavorful. Living foods have not had the flavor cooked out of them and typically require less seasoning. Fruits, especially, are naturally sweet and flavorful. When cooked, fruits usually end up tasting like the sugary sauce they have been drowned in.

3) Less expensive. Raw food is among the cheapest you can buy, requiring the least packaging and processing.

4) Less complicated. There is no need to follow complicated recipes, observe cooking and baking times, or hover over a hot stove at all.

5) Easier to implement and follow. Cleaning up is much faster. No skillets covered in grease or scorched pans await clean up in your kitchen following a meal. While most people don't consider cooking as a hazardous activity, consider grease fires, boiling liquids, and 400-degree ovens with the potential dangers they present.

6) Earth friendly. Without the cooking and heating, you are saving lots of electricity. You'll save money and natural resources.

7) It's harder to overeat with raw foods. You might be able to consume a whole box of ice cream, but not a whole bag of carrots. You will feel fuller longer, too.

Raw food advocates claim their way of eating is naturally more healthy, resulting in indirect benefits of less expense for doctor visits and medicines. Add to that the time you miss from work or school with illnesses.

They will also point to the fact that even though everyone cooks their food, everyone is sick, has cavities, gets colds, and has poor vision. It's hard to argue with that.