Raw foodism

This article is about raw food consumption by humans. For a raw diet for cats or dogs, see Raw feeding.

A raw tomato sauce with olives, celery, spinach and walnuts on courgette (zucchini) 'pasta' noodles.

Raw bean sprouts on a dish.

Kimchi (Korean spicy pickled cabbage), named by Health (magazine) in its list of top five "World's Healthiest Foods".

Muesli (raw rolled oats, dried fruits and nuts), invented by a Swiss physician around 1900, shown with milk and banana

Raw oysters presented on a plate.

Raw Drunken shrimp, considered a Chinese delicacy.

Basashi, Japanese raw horse meat, low in saturated fats

Sliced Chinese preserved century egg on a plate

Sardinian Casu marzu cheese, includes live insect larvae.

Scandinavian pickled herring, rich in Vitamin D, Vitamin B12, and Omega-3 fatty acids

Inuit Muktuk or raw whale blubber, rich in Vitamin C.

Raw foodism (or rawism) is a lifestyle promoting the consumption of un-cooked, un-processed, and often organic foods as a large percentage of the diet. If 75 to 100% of a person's total food consumption is raw food, he/she is considered a raw foodist or living foodist. Raw foodists typically believe that the greater the percentage of raw food in the diet, the greater the health benefits. Raw foodism or a raw food diet is usually equated with raw veganism in which only raw plant foods are eaten, but other raw foodists emphasize raw meat and other raw animal products. Depending on the type of lifestyle and results desired, raw food diets may include a selectıon of raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds (including sprouted whole grains such as gaba rice), eggs, fish (such as sashimi), meat (such as carpaccio), and non-pasteurized/non-homogenized dairy products (such as raw milk, raw cheese and raw yogurt). Raw foodists can be divided between those that advocate raw vegetarianism or raw veganism, those that advocate a raw omnivorous diet, and those that advocate a diet of only raw animal foods (carnivorous).

Adherents of raw foodism believe that consumption of uncooked foods encourages weight loss and prevents and/or heals many forms of sickness and chronic diseases. Some medical studies have indicated that different forms of raw food diets may lead to various health problems, while other studies have shown positive health outcomes with such diets.

Raw veganism

Main article: Raw veganism

A Raw veganism diet consists of unprocessed, raw plant foods that have not been heated above 115 °F (46 °C).“Raw foodists” believe that foods cooked above this temperature have lost much of their nutritional value and are harmful to the body. Many vegans avoid honey, as it is an animal product. Some raw vegans can be subdivided into Fruitarians, Juicearians, or Sproutarians. Personal claims are that there are many benefits from following a raw vegan diet, including weight loss, more energy, clear skin and improved overall health.

Raw vegetarianism

See also: Vegetarianism

Vegetarianism is a diet that excludes meat, (including game and slaughter by-products), fish (including shellfish and other sea animals) and poultry, but allows dairy and eggs. There are several varients of this diet.

Some include raw, unprocessed dairy products (or raw eggs) in their diet, but most raw foodists follow a raw vegan diet.

Raw animal food diets

Foods included in raw animal food diets include any food that can be eaten raw, so including raw, unprocessed meats/organ-meats/raw eggs, raw dairy, and aged, raw animal foods such as century eggs, rotting (fermenting) meat/fish/shellfish/kefir, as well as, to a lesser extent, nuts/sprouts/plants/fruits, but generally not raw grains, raw beans, raw soy etc., because of digestibility and toxicity issues and also because paleolists tend to reject neolithic or domesticated foods. Raw foods on such diets have not been heated at temperatures above 104 °F (40 °C). “Raw Animal Foodists” believe that foods cooked above this temperature have lost much of their nutritional value and are harmful to the body Smoked meats are frowned upon by many Raw-Omnivores. Some make a distinction between hot-smoked and cold-smoked.

It should be noted that those who eat a raw omnivorous diet usually choose to obtain their meats from free-range and grass-fed sources. This greatly diminishes the risk of harmful bacteria. A study by Cornell University has determined that grass-fed animals have far fewer E. coli (approx. 300 times less) than their grain fed counterparts. Also in the same study, the amount of E. coli they do have is much less likely to survive our first line defense against infection, gastric acid. Grass-fed meat also has more nutrients, such as vitamins, minerals, and Omega-3 fatty acids, than grain-finished meat

Examples of raw animal food diets include the Primal Diet and the Raw, Palaeolithic diet and the Tiger Diet.

The Nenet tribe of Siberia eat a traditional diet consisting of mostly raw meats/organ-meats and raw berries.

Those Inuit people that still follow their traditional diet eat a partially raw diet, including large amounts of raw meats/organ-meats and aged raw foods in the form of caribou and fish, among other foods.

Pemmican is the traditional North American travel food, prepared from dried meat, fat, and berries.

Gravlax (not smoked salmon) is the traditional (without sugar) Scandinavian way of preserving salmon.

Background

History

Raw foods, though certainly a part of traditional diets, gained prominence in the West throughout the 1900s, as proponents such as Ann Wigmore and Herbert Shelton stated that a diet of raw fruits and vegetables is the ideal diet for humans. Interest in the "Raw Foods Movement" continues to grow today and is especially prevalent in the western United States, like California where many resources are available for interested people to learn more about and practice a raw foods lifestyle.

Artturi Virtanen (1895-1973), showed that enzymes in uncooked foods are released in the mouth when vegetables are chewed. Raw foodists extrapolate from such research the supposition that these enzymes interact with other substances, notably the enzymes produced by the body itself, to aid in the digestion process. Research does not support the idea that enzymes in foods somehow survive the stomach - (pepsin in the stomach quickly breaks down nearly all proteins, including enzymes). However, promoters of raw foods, such as the Weston-Price Foundation, support the idea that, since no digestive juices are secreted in the upper stomach, the enzymes in the raw foods last for about 30 minutes in the upper-stomach before being destroyed in the lower stomach, thus giving them enough time to break down the raw foods, to some extent.

Leslie Kenton's book, Raw Energy-Eat Your Way to Radiant Health, in 1984 popularized food such as sprouts, seeds, and fresh vegetable juices. The book brought together research into raw foodism and its support of health, citing examples such as the sprouted seed enriched diets of the long lived Hunza people, as well as Max Gerson's claim of a raw juice-based cancer cure. The book advocates a diet of 75% raw food in order to prevent Degenerative diseases, slow the effects of aging, provide enhanced energy, and boost emotional balance.

Restaurants catering to a raw food diet have opened in large cities, and numerous all-raw cookbooks have been published.

In the documentary film "Supercharge Me!" an overweight woman filmed her experience of eating exclusively raw fruits and vegetables for 30 days to show the results, taking the opposite approach of "Super Size Me."

Beliefs

Common beliefs held by raw foodists:

• Raw foods contain digestive enzymes (Amylase, Protease, Lipase) which aid digestion, meaning that the body's own enzymes may work unimpeded in regulating the body's metabolic processes, and heating food above 104-120 degrees Fahrenheit degrades or destroys these enzymes in food. Eating food without enzymes makes digestion more difficult, which could lead to toxicity in the body and cause excess consumption of food, obesity and chronic disease, such as Metabolic syndrome.
• Digestive enzymes are a limited resource in the body and eating cooked foods will deplete these enzymes.
• Raw foods contain bacteria and other micro-organisms that affect the immune system and digestion by populating the digestive tract with gut flora. Many Raw-Foodists, particularly Primal-Dieters, are believers in the hygiene hypothesis, a concept which focuses on the health-benefits of exposure to parasites and bacteria which builds natural resistance.
• Raw foods have higher nutrient values than foods which have been cooked. In addition, Processed food and Convenience food often contain excitotoxins (flavor enhancers) which can cause Excitotoxicity. Foods with added chemicals, preservatives, additives, colouring agents/dyes of any kind are frowned upon by raw-foodists.
• Wild foods (or natural foods) are more nutritious than domesticated foods or industrially produced foods.
• Cooked foods contain harmful toxins which cause chronic disease and other problems, see also Carcinogens in prepared food. Cooking oils and fats can produce Trans fats.
• Eating cooked foods can lead to Metabolic acidosis.

Raw food diets

The following popular diets include only raw foods:

Diet	Raw foods included in the diet	Notable adherents
Instinctive eating (anopsology)	fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds and meat — basically includes all raw foods except dairy, grains and legumes.	Guy-Claude Burger, Bruno Comby, Renato F. Sison, Severen L.Schaeffer.
Fruitarianism	fruit, nuts and seeds, and sometimes greens, sprouted grains & legumes	Morris Krok
Primal diet	fatty meats, organ meats, dairy, honey, minimal fruit and vegetable juices, coconut cream	Aajonus Vonderplanitz
Raw foodism	food from all food groups (unheated or warmed to a temp less than 105 degrees)	Jason Mraz
Raw veganism	fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds and sprouted grains and legumes	Shazzie, David Wolfe, Gabriel Cousens, Tonya Kay
Raw vegetarianism	fruit, vegetables, sprouts, nuts, seeds, grains, legumes, dairy, eggs and honey
Raw meat diet	lean and fatty meats, organ-meats, fruit, vegetables, honey, nuts, fish, shellfish, eggs — often (though not always) excludes dairy, grains, legumes and vegetable juices	Vinny Pinto
Sproutarianism	mainly sprouted seeds

Food preparation

Many foods in raw food diets are simple to prepare, such as fruits, salads, meat, and dairy. Other foods can require considerable advanced planning to prepare for eating. Rice and some other grains, for example, require sprouting or overnight soaking to become digestible. Many raw foodists believe it is best to soak nuts before eating them, in order to activate their enzymes, and deactivate enzyme inhibitors.

Preparation of gourmet raw food recipes usually call for a blender, food processor, juicer, and dehydrator. Depending on the recipe, some food (such as crackers, breads and cookies) may need to be dehydrated. These processes, which produce foods with the taste and texture of cooked food, are lengthy. Some raw foodists dispense with these foods, feeling that there is no need to emulate the other non-raw diets.

Freezing food is acceptable, even though freezing lowers enzyme activity. This view is only held by some raw-foodists, with many raw-foodists actually viewing freezing as harmful, though not as unhealthy as cooking.

Care may be required in planning a raw food diet, especially for children. There is little research on how to plan a nutritionally adequate raw food diet; nutritionists and raw M.D.s are usually willing to provide professional advice. Raw foodists believe that with sufficient food energy, essential fatty acids, variety and density, people of all ages can be successful at eating raw foods, although whether the diet works for any one person depends on their unique metabolism. Dr. Joel Fuhrman, author of Disease-Proof your Child, says there may not be enough vitamin B12, enough vitamin D and enough calories for a growing child on a totally raw vegetarian diet. Fuhrman fed his own four children raw and cooked vegetables, fruits, nuts, grains, beans and occasionally eggs.

Avoiding poisoning

Opened can of surströmming(fermented Baltic herring) in brine.

As the consumption of raw foods gains popularity, some unsafe foods have re-entered the diets of humans. The following should be consumed with caution:

• Buckwheat greens are toxic when raw, particularly if juiced or eaten in large quantities by fair skinned individuals. The chemical component fagopyrum is known to cause severe photosensitivity and other dermatological complaints.
• Kidney beans, including sprouts, are toxic when raw.
• Rhubarb: when eaten in sufficient quantity, leaves can be toxic when raw, stalks are completely safe to eat when harvested early.
• Potatoes: a member of the nightshade family, can produce the toxic alkaloid solanine. The flesh of the potato just beneath the skins is usually green if solanine is present, but one may be present without the other. Solanine can be removed by peeling the potatoes.
• Alfalfa sprouts contain the toxin Canavanine.
• Raw foods may contain harmful bacteria or parasites, which may cause foodborne illnesses.

Raw food movement

Early proponents include Johnny Love-Wisdom, Ann Wigmore and Viktoras Kulvinskas (co-founders of the Hippocrates Health Institute), Arnold Ehret (author and advocate of fasting), A Hovannessian and Norman W. Walker (who advocated the consumption of juices, living up to the age of 99 years).

Notable contemporary proponents include several published authors and lecturers such as David Wolfe, Shazzie, Kate Magic Wood, Gabriel Cousens, Victoria Boutenko, Joseph Mercola and Sarma Melngailis, Alissa Cohen, Carol Alt and Aajonus Vonderplanitz.

Celebrities following Raw-Animal-Food diets include Mel Gibson (who follows the "Tiger Diet"), Demi Moore and Uma Thurman. Other raw-foodist celebrities include Kathy Lenon, James Brolin, Frankie Laine and Laura Dern.

The principles of Natural hygiene promote a mainly raw vegan diet. Famous natural hygienists have included Herbert Shelton and Anthony Robbins.

Currently, there exist many proponents of the Raw Foods lifestyle, that have resources available on proper nutrition and transitional lifestyle diet changes, including Carol Alt, Alissa Cohen, Douglas Graham, David Jubb, Karl Loren, Joseph Mercola, Matt Monarch, Paul Nison, Vinny Pinto, Angela Stokes, Shazzie, Kate Magic Wood, Aajonus Vonderplanitz, Norman W. Walker and David Wolfe. Vast resources, including forums, recipes, personal testimony, nutritional guides, medical information, and products, exist online as well and are available for anyone interested in researching Raw Foods.

Superfoods have been gaining increasing popularity among raw fooders over the past few years, notably maca, goji berries, and cacao. In April 2008, Rawcreation published the world's first superfood recipe book by Kate Magic Wood, titled Raw Magic, Recipes for the Revolution.

It's been estimated by the guru, Aajonus Vonderplanitz, that there are 20,000 followers of his raw-meat-heavy Primal Diet in North America, alone.

Books by Aajonus Vonderplanitz, the Primal Diet author, include "The Recipe for Living Without Disease" and his book "We Want To Live - 2005 edition

Research

Early 20th century

A 1933 paper by E. B. Forbes says, "Cooking renders food pasty, so that it sticks to the teeth, and undergoes acid fermentation. Furthermore, the cooking of food greatly diminishes the need for use of the teeth; and thus tends to diminish the circulation of blood to the jaws and teeth, and to produce under-development of the maxillary and contiguous bones—thus leading to contracted dental arches, and to malocclusion and impaction of the teeth, with complications of great seriousness."

In a 1936 work entitled Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, dentist Weston A. Price, noted that the healthiest native-tribes he saw all incorporated some form of raw animal food in their diet , Being a dentist, Weston-Price focused to some extent on the excellent dental health of the native-tribes he cited. Because of the consumption of fermented and raw foods (including raw animal products), Price also noted that these native diets were rich in enzymes. . As a direct result, he became an enthusiastic promoter of raw dairy, which forms a significant part of the Weston-Price Diet.

Dr. Edward Howell, an Illinois physician, wrote Food Enzymes for Health & Longevity in 1941. Forty years later he published Enzyme Nutrition And "Eat Me Raw", Two books in which he argued that the pancreas is forced to work harder on a diet of cooked foods, and that food enzymes are just as essential to digestion as the body's self-generated enzymes, statements which have not been verified. The book was based largely on ideas from his previous book, and ideas derived from flawed enzyme research from the 1930s before it was established that enzymes were proteins. Although this book presents his theory of diet, Howell does not provide any original scientific research to support his conjectures.

Recent research

Certain studies have indicated detrimental health effects stemming from raw vegetarian and raw omnivorous diets. A 2005 study has shown that a raw vegetarian diet is associated with a lower bone density. One study of raw omnivorous diets shows amenorrhea and underweightness in women. Another one indicates an increased risk of dental erosion with a raw food diet.

Other medical studies on raw food diets have shown some positive and negative health outcomes. According to one medical trial, "long-term consumption of a raw food diet is associated with favorable serum LDL cholesterol and triglycerides but also with elevated plasma homocysteine and low serum HDL cholesterol" as well as vitamin B-12 deficiency. Another study from Germany found that a "long-term strict raw food diet is associated with favourable plasma beta-carotene and low plasma lycopene concentrations." A study mentioned benefits of a Raw Vegan diet for lowering obesity and hypertension A study has also shown reduced fibromyalgia symptoms for those on a Raw Vegan Diet as well as reduced symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, according to another study

Studies on raw human milk showed that human infants absorbed human raw milk much better than heated(pasteurised) human milk,.

Increasing numbers of long-term raw vegans believe that to sustain the diet daily inclusion of superfoods and/or supplements are necessary, particularly for children and mothers. Many raw vegan children have been shown to have problems with tooth decay which is believed to be a result of vitamin D deficiency, however this may simply be miseducation as vitamin D2 comes from plant sources and vitamin D3 can be manufactured by the human body upon exposure to sunlight. In this blog, mothers are encouraged either to supplement or include raw dairy products or other raw animal foods in their childrens' diets in order to avoid irrevocable damage to their children's health.

Toxins in Cooked Foods

Researchers at the University of Toronto and another published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute suggest that ingesting uncooked or unpasteurized dairy products may reduce the risk of colon cancer. Mice and rats fed uncooked sucrose, casein, and beef tallow had one-third to one-fifth the incidence of microadenomas as the mice and rats fed the same ingredients cooked.

Several studies published since 1990 indicate that cooking muscle meat creates heterocyclic amines (HCAs), which are thought to increase cancer risk in humans. Researchers at the National Cancer Institute found that human subjects who ate beef rare or medium-rare had less than one third the risk of stomach cancer than those who ate beef medium-well or well-done. While eating muscle meat raw may be the only way to avoid HCAs fully, the National Cancer Institute states that cooking meat below 212 °F (100 °C) creates "negligible amounts" of HCAs. Also, microwaving meat before cooking may reduce HCAs by 90%. Nitrosamines, present in processed and cooked foods, have also been noted as being carcinogenic, being linked to colon cancer.

There are also concerns regards Advanced Glycation Endproducts , otherwise known as AGEs, toxins which are present in cooked-foods in sizeable amounts and which contribute to age- and diabetes-related chronic inflammatory diseases such as atherosclerosis, asthma, arthritis , myocardial infarction, nephropathy, retinopathy or neuropathy.

Acrylamide, a toxin found in baked/fried/grilled foods, but not in boiled or raw foods, has been linked to endometrial, ovarian and breast cancers German research in 2003 showed significant benefits in reducing breast cancer risk when large amounts of raw vegetable matter are included in the diet. The authors attribute some of this effect to heat-labile phytonutrients.

Criticism and controversies

Food poisoning

Food poisoning is a health risk for all people eating raw foods, and increased demand for raw foods is associated with greater incidence of foodborne illness, especially for raw meat, fish, and shellfish. Outbreaks of gastroenteritis among consumers of raw and undercooked animal products (including smoked, pickled or dried animal products) are well-documented, and include raw meat, raw organ meat, raw fish (whether ocean-going or freshwater), shellfish, raw milk and products made from raw milk, and raw eggs.

Food poisoning attributed to contaminated raw produce has risen ten-fold since the 1970s. Salad, lettuce, juice, melon, sprouts, and berries were most frequently implicated in outbreaks.

Many raw plant foods have been contaminated by dangerous and even deadly microorganisms, including jalapeño and serrano peppers, alfalfa sprouts and other sprouted seeds, green onions, spinach, lettuce, orange juice, apple juice and other unpasteurized fruit juices.

According to the U.S. FDA, the health benefits claimed by raw milk advocates do not exist. "The small quantities of antibodies in milk are not absorbed in the human intestinal tract," says Barbara Ingham, Ph.D., associate professor and extension food scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "There is no scientific evidence that raw milk contains an anti-arthritis factor or that it enhances resistance to other diseases."

Nutritional deficiencies

A raw vegan diet can be deficient in calcium, vitamin D, vitamin B12, iron, zinc and protein. These nutrients are much easier to get in foods from animal sources.

Some nutrients in cooked foods, are more available to the body than in raw foods. Heating foods normally makes their nutrients more easily digestible by breaking down the husks and skin in the food, bursting open the cells so that the contents are more available, modifying the molecules, breaking down large indigestible molecules into smaller digestible molecules, and finally, breaking down toxins or chemicals in the food.

Human evolution

Richard Wrangham, a primate researcher and critic of raw-food diets has argued that cooking is obligatory for humans as a result of biological adaptations to cooked foods. Wrangham believes that cooking explains the increase in hominid brain sizes, smaller teeth and jaws and decrease in sexual dimorphism that occurred roughly 1.8 million years ago. Wrangham further states that "no human foragers have been recorded as living without cooking [...] The possibility that cooking is obligatory is supported by calculations suggesting that a diet of raw food could not supply sufficient calories for a normal hunter–gatherer lifestyle. In particular, many plant foods are too fiber-rich when raw, while most raw meat appears too tough to allow easy chewing." Most other anthropologists oppose Wrangham, contending that archeological evidence suggests that cooking fires began in earnest only 250,000 years ago, when ancient hearths, earth ovens, burnt animal bones, and flint appear across Europe and the middle East. The particular stance of Wrangham's, re cooking leading to bigger human brains and adaptability to cooked-foods, has been contrasted with several studies showing that average human brain-size has actually decreased in the last 35,000 years by 11%.

See also

• Cooking
• Food safety
• Healthy diet
• Taboo foods

External links

• Life Extension Magazine, Nov 2007, Carol Alt, The Raw Revolution