The raw food diet is essentially just what it sounds like — a diet strictly limiting you to foods that haven’t been cooked. Sounds easy enough to accomplish, but the real question is whether this diet is actually any good for you.
This vegan diet modification means you can’t eat foods cooked or consume anything heated above 118 degrees Fahrenheit. Instead, you can only prepare your meals by juicing, pureeing, soaking, or sprouting them. Don’t even think of touching that oven.
“The raw food diet is based on the idea that the natural enzymes in raw foods are destroyed through the cooking process,” Toronto-based dietitian and food blogger Abbey Sharp told Women’s Health.
While there is some truth to this (heating your food can actually destroy some vitamins, phytonutrients, and chemicals that help us to digest), Sharp said most of these enzymes are destroyed inside us by our stomach acid anyway. In fact, Robin Fourutan, a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, told Women’s Health that our bodies actually make digestive enzymes that have the same effect as those that can be found in food.
So, what can you eat without cooking it first? Sharp said the diet allows for raw fruits, veggies, legumes, grains, seeds and nuts, extra-virgin olive oil, raw coconut oil, and butter. There are also some people who go a step further and eat unpasteurized milk, cheese, and honey, even raw fish and meats too.
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There are some restricted foods to this diet that may surprise you, like table salt, pasta, and pasteurized juice, which have all been processed and are therefore strictly off-limits.
Fouroutan explained that there are some health benefits to this diet, particularly with adding more fruits and veggies that help reduce the risk of conditions linked to inflammation, like cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. The added greens will also help with your cholesterol and triglyceride levels. But is this diet actually good for you? Nutritionists say no, and in fact, Sharp said the idea that raw food is more nutritious than cooked food is a myth.
Yes, cooking does destroy some antioxidants and enzymes found in our food, but others can actually be boosted when heated, like lycopene, potassium, and zinc, found in tomatoes, mushrooms, and asparagus.
In fact, restricting yourself from cooked foods puts you at a greater risk for nutrient deficiency, which is certainly the opposite effect someone on a raw diet would hope to achieve. You lose protein sources, fats, vitamins, and also fiber. Plus, the side effects can be a little uncomfortable.
“A lot of raw vegetables are rich in insoluble fibers that we don’t digest, which get fermented in the gut by bacteria, causing gas,” Sharp said. “Cooking helps to soften those fibers. People with IBS especially may find that a raw diet is particularly hard on their gut and causes digestive stress.”
Those who add raw animal foods to their diet are running the potential for even more dangerous health risks. Unpasteurized dairy may contain Listeria, and raw meat and eggs can carry other pathogens that can be particularly dangerous if the consumer is pregnant or has a compromised immune system.
That being said, there’s no real harm in adopting some raw foods into your diet, just so long as that’s not all that you eat.
“As long as your digestion can handle it, including raw fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, and fermented foods is really healthy without committing to a 100 percent raw vegan diet,” Fourutan said.
In order to avoid serious health problems and nutrient deficiencies, it would definitely be in your best interest to enjoy the best of both worlds — eat some foods raw, eat some foods cooked, and your body will thank you.
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