It is always exciting for me to see raw food receive press. The word is rapidly getting out that the science DOES prove an increase in your health benefits by eating raw and living whole foods.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, co-author of the popular weight loss (non-raw) book You: On a Diet, was a guest on Oprah Monday. Although we do not own a TV, we happened to catch this segment at a friend’s house.

Dr. Oz showed a video clip of a story about a fascinating experiment done at the Paignton Zoo in Devon, England.

They took nine people who had high blood pressure and:

“For the next 12 days, they lived in the zoo and kept to an “evolutionary” new diet—the zoo keeper fed them a diet reminiscent of an ape’s. To get the calories they needed, each volunteer had to eat 11 pounds of raw fruits, vegetables and nuts every single day.”

What happened in just twelve days of eating only raw foods?

Yet after 12 days, their cholesterol dropped by an average of 25 percent, their blood pressure dropped by 10 percent, and they lost about 10 pounds each—including two-and-a-quarter inches of their waists. “The results were … remarkable,” Dr. Oz says.

Of course, we are not surprised by the results, but the obvious benefits of raw food being spread on Oprah is always a good surprise.