What Shape had to say about the Raw Food Diet

[livenraw]

I subsribe to this mag and thought I'd share with you what they said. I'll just go over the main points of what they said. They said it's not a diet trend that will kill you and that there's no real harm in it. But they point out theat we're missing out on the health benefits certain foods have when heated (ummm...what food would that be?) And their prediction with raw food diets is that they are destined to remain the equivalent of dietary off-roading. It's fun to occasionally take a back road but there aren't enough of us willing to permanently sacrifice the smell of sauteeing onions and the taste of a warm meal to make it a long lasting trend. (I think this will be a trend that will just become tradition over time. It will just be a tradition to eat this way)

[Angelina]

lol..I read that too..imagine that we are sacrificing the smell of sauteed onions for good health!!

[JMD]

I read the article...but I wonder if the author really has tried raw foods!! Doubtful?? Experience is the best teacher...and if I am in a rare breed who takes back roads~~~~YAHOO!!! I cannot stomach onions anyway!!! :) :D

[raeannasun]

When I read about people talking about the health benefits of cooked food I wonder where they did their research.

Before I determined to be raw I read and read and read and read to make sure I was making the right choice! The only benefit I found was that cooked veggies are higher in calories and on a raw food diet you need to make sure you're eating enough calories for your body. Well, I love to eat and if I have to eat more to get more calories I'll do it!!!! I'd rather have more to eat than ration my foods with cooked food!!! LOL!

[twinee1]

Before I determined to be raw I read and read and read and read to make sure I was making the right choice! ................I'd rather have more to eat than ration my foods with cooked food!!! LOL!

I ditto that ! I used to stress over my limited food choices and minimal meals when eating cooked (as I am weight gain phobic...) and now eating raw I find I can eat and eat and walk away from a meal saying "I could not eat it all"...vs when cooked saying ..."thats all I get to eat ? !!!!!!!!!!!"


and raw sweets are new to me...when sad I would rarley eat a piece of fruit, desert...a cracker or bread. Now I do it all...as long as it is raw !!

So I think Shape has it all upside down...btw ...I hate the smell of many cooked foods...onions cooking, garlic...meat...ugh ! I am getting so I hate to cook for DH !

[honeybee joy]

What issue is that? I get that magazine in the mail & haven't read it in ages.

[JennaBoBenna]

But they point out theat we're missing out on the health benefits certain foods have when heated (ummm...what food would that be?)

I saw on a show ("Good Eats") that certain greens need to be heated to break the cell wall. Humans can't get the benefits from most greens because we don't chew well enough to break it.

But...thanks to green smoothies we can get the benefits! So HAH :D

[margi]

The only benefit of a cooked food vs. a raw food I can think of would be a significantly higher presence of lycopene in canned tomatoes and tomato paste (both cooked) which is not present in raw tomatoes. That's really the only thing I have come across though! Heard of any others?

[Universal]

Peace,

I'll echo a lot of you, especially raeannasun, in that i read and read, and gathered as much information possible before making the decision to attempt eating raw foods. And all the information i gathered seemed to add up and make sense. It's really that simple. Don't let these magazines and many other "experts" make you second guess the almighty common sense factor!
Common sense is still undefeated. Every other living organism, creature, on this planet eats raw foods except for us. And they all (when placed in the proper environment) seem to be very well nutritioned. I wonder if someone ever explained to a cow that he needs to cook his greens to extract more nutrients from it and break the cell wall so that he can get the best out of it.
The condition of Digestive Leukocytosis is something i researched briefly during my early raw days, which is basically the condition of an overabundance of white blood cells (leukocytes) in the blood. This happens because once the food is cooked, the nutrients become denatured and are not recognized properly by the body. So naturally it's immune response is to trigger white blood cells and take out the bad stuff it doesn't recognize. This doesn't have an adverse affect right away, however, in due time your health WILL be affected a lot worse than it could be. If you were to use all those white blood cells for the reasons they were intended to be used (not when eating food!!) then you would see the results with your health.
And to this day nothing i've come across has disproven Digestive Leukocytosis.

In conclusion, Common Sense always wins!!! Stay Raw!!!


PEACE
Universal

[raeannasun]

AMEN!
If you all ever have a chance to see Tonya Zavasta, she had amazing photos of healthy blood cells from her body and photos of a typical blood cell count from someone on a SAD diet. It was crazy! She also had photos blown up of her colon vs. a SAD diet person's colon. WOW! If that doesn't motivate you to be raw I don't know what will!!!! :)

[Doe]

In all honesty there are foods which are eaten cooked that cannot be eaten raw. These foods contain toxins that are somehow made safer when cooked. I was looking at a wild foods book the other day and repeatedly saw cautions not to eat whatever raw. We've even heard here not to eat raw cultivated peanuts. Obviously a few won't kill anyone sense some have tried them. Yet large quantities would cause health problems if not death. Not that I advocate eating them cooked. There are many great replacements for that cooked food, eaten on veggies not bread (yay). Anyway the thought came to mind. Anything that has to be cooked to become edible is out in my opinion.

Teri S

[Naturegirl]

I Anything that has to be cooked to become edible is out in my opinion.

Teri S

Well, it kind of makes you think: "if I have to cook it in order for it to be safe, why should I eat it at all?"

I'm still in transition to raw (with a long way to go) and if I look at my food this way and really break down whats in that food that I'm putting in my body then I'll be less likely to eat it.