opinions about the raw food diet
i find diet fads pretty interesting. mostly entertaining, actually - i got a big kick out of the Atkins craze ::)
i used to think the raw diet was one of the less harmful fad diets, because who can complain about a vegan diet that is based in veggies, fruit and seeds? seems pretty healthy to me! but while lurking around a raw food diet message board today, i found a post from a woman who was terrified because her hair was falling out and thinning considerably. i don't know how many people have experienced extreme hair loss, but it is really scary! the really scary part, though, was the responses by the other people. they all just told her to calm down - it's just your body releasing toxins!
i thought this was ridiculous! the poor girl is going bald! she probably has some kind of deficiency that could be really harmful to her health. i don't think it is rocket science to assume that when your hair starts falling out in handfuls that there is something wrong! i just though it was disturbing to read this. :-\
hmm.
I think it's pretty helathy.
i've gone raw foods for a couple months before and never experienced any side effects.
it just made me feel really really healthy and much more alert.
i think it's probably the most healthy way to live, but i'm having problems kicking the habit...of bread...and cake. hah.
I bake too much
but I really respect people who are raw.
I would love to got completely raw foods, I'm starting again.
I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about rawism. I think that, like any diet, it needs to be managed properly with regards to nutrition to be healthy.
I watched that YouTube clip. If going raw could cure my diabetes (type 1 for 10 years now) I would so do it. I do believe that eliminating that majority of toxins in one's diet could help to eliminate type 2 diabetes. Since the majority of type two diabetes is brought on by unhealthy lifestyles, I think it's unrealistic to believe that, even with significant scientific evidence, most type 2 diabetics would change their way of life instead of taking pills.
I was reading about this on various websites online, and I couldn't find anything definitive or authoratative on the subject of the toxicity of sprouts (except that everyone seems to agree that kidney bean sprouts are toxic).
There was one website that "dispelled the myths" of the toxicity of sprouts (but they obviously had a bit of a vested interest in doing so, since I got a pop-up ad to do some sort of apple diet...). One part argued that a toxin in some sprouts, solanine, may actually be beneficial, and another (begins with a "c"... can't remember the name) is present in low enough levels to be deemed insignificant.
I gotta take the solanine issue to task, since it definitely definitely *is* toxic (it is the reason why the green parts and the greens of potatoes are toxic, and there's no argument that the greens of the nightshade family are also somehow beneficial). And also, if we're going to brush off a toxin because it is present in (relatively speaking) minute amounts, couldn't the same be argued for the 'minute' amounts of toxins/bacteria/fecal matter in meat?
And yeah, apparently certain nutrients are harder to get from raw foods (lycopene, beta carotene). Even if they are present in larger amounts, less of it is absorbable as in cooked foods.
But I dunno... I think if you eat enough raw fruits and veggies, the accessibility isn't an issue; but I'm still suspicious about uncooked/sprouted grains.
Someone mentioned why bother being raw, since veganism evidently has similar health benefits, is less expensive, and is less difficult to do and keep balanced. All the raw-foodists I've met do their diet because they believe that the simple omission of animal products isn't enough, and that the process of cooking not only destroys some important stuff but has harmful effects (like oil becoming carcinogenic if brought to a high enough temperature).
And yeah, apparently certain nutrients are harder to get from raw foods (lycopene, beta carotene). Even if they are present in larger amounts, less of it is absorbable as in cooked foods.
But I dunno... I think if you eat enough raw fruits and veggies, the accessibility isn't an issue; but I'm still suspicious about uncooked/sprouted grains.
I've thought about that, too. Tomatoes have Vitamin C, which you get by eating tomatoes raw, and lycopene, which is more bioavailable if tomatoes are eaten steamed or cooked (like tomato sauce). If you eat enough raw tomatoes you might get enough lycopene, but agriculture is tough on the environment. I eat 80% raw, mostly because I don't like cooking, but I don't mind eating 20% cooked because I don't want to add further stress to the planet.
Yeah, it seems like if you're an omnivore and your daily source of lycopene/etc is that single, wilted slice of tomato on your meaty meaty meat burger, that might not do you much good... But if you're doing raw veganism and you're munching on raw stuff all day, you probably get plenty anyway.
It took me a while to realize that I was unwittingly having a raw meal every day (salad with nothing cooked, including dressing). And I was wondering why I started feeling so healthy... ???
Do you think that the raw way of "cooking" the tomatoes would help with the nutrient issue? Not everything they eat is completely raw, so maybe that makes it easier to get the full nutritional benefits. I don't know enough about eating raw to say, and I'm not sure how "cooked" tomatoes. etc. have to be to get everything you need from them.
Huh... I wonder if dehydrating tomatoes would do it. You can heat things to somewhere around 100F and it's still considered raw. I wonder if hours of 95F heat would yield the same results as fully heated tomatoes?
If you eat enough raw tomatoes you might get enough lycopene, but agriculture is tough on the environment. I eat 80% raw, mostly because I don't like cooking, but I don't mind eating 20% cooked because I don't want to add further stress to the planet.
I'm not sure I understand how eating the same thing raw verses cooked is harder on the environment. ???
I've heard the same negativity directed toward vegetarianism. And I've seen some pretty unhealthy looking vegetarians. Some are still extremely overweight, some look like walking dead people! Does that make vegetarianism 'bad' or unhealthy? The issue is our food choices within whatever nutritional lifestyle we choose. When someone is losing hair, extremely under or overweight, fatigued etc., I believe these are indicators that choices need to be evaluated seriously. I can eat potato chips from now til Christmas, breakfast, lunch and supper and still call myself vegetarian, but I doubt that I would be a good example for the cause. ;) I think we need to be very careful about judging anything without all the facts. For every unhealthy raw foodist, there are thousands more that are thriving!
My husband and I recently began a raw food journey, we weren't even vegetarians. But he was diagnosed recently with a malignant growth under his larynx and doctors want to do a total laryngectomy, removing voice box, thyroid and leave him with a voice prosthesis and permeant hole at the base of his neck to breathe through. The type of sarcoma he has is very slow growing so we have postponed surgery for 3 months and are juicing and gone mostly raw (some cooked foods) no meat, no dairy, no white stuff....sugar, white flour, pastas etc. While it has only been two weeks, already my joint pain has disappeared and my shoulder that was diagnosed with a torn rotator cuff two years ago, no longer pains at night like before! I believe a large part of that is getting rid of meat.
Anyway, let's be careful about forming opinions when so many variables are in play. :)
hmmm, i am glad this thread came back. i have been lurking around raw boards (and, heck, contributing) and i have seen the same thing! a lot of pseudo-science and so much belief in the raw diet. i'm not going to say it's all wrong, but i know a lot of nutritional science and i am still a skeptic (even though i did go 100% raw for a test about a week ago).
anyway, one of these thread was talking about how no one should take a multi-vitamin, but really, i know i am not getting any b12 so i am going to keep taking it until i can be sure my diet is ok w/out supplementation. i do feel much better on a raw diet, but i am not convinced that it is the ultimate healer/health benefiting thing everyone claims. i have come across some research for it since i am doing research on veganism and most of it does look pretty good (and i heard t. colin campbell is doing research on it, yay! i will be excited to see that), but i also believe that truly 'raw' diet differs from a normal diet on so many levels that it might be something that needs to be measured completely differently.
i really don't know enough about it, but i agree that raw foodists can be a very dogmatic bunch :-\
I was reading about this on various websites online, and I couldn't find anything definitive or authoratative on the subject of the toxicity of sprouts (except that everyone seems to agree that kidney bean sprouts are toxic).
Sorry to go sliiightly off topic, but...
...am I the only one who's been taught that kidney beans, cooked from dried, have natural toxins, and need to be rapid-boiled for 10-15 minutes to destroy these toxins? ???
Heliamphora - I've heard that too. Though I often use the short hot soak method before boiling beans (bring to the boil in a pan of water, switch off heat and wait for an hour, change water and boil as normal), I owuldn't dream of doing it for kidney beans. I've known far too many people who got far too ill from not preparing them properly. I can't see how you could avoid the toxins without heavy boiling. The shop I go to sells all manner of sprouted things but I don't htink I've ever seen sprouted kidney beans.
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