The raw food diet became quite popular after celebrities such as Demi Moore actively preached the benefits of it. It’s a deceptively simply diet that focuses on eating foods that have not been cooked in any way, shape, or form. Strict raw foodists insist that cooking our foods renders them toxic or strips them of their nutritional value. That means that any type of heat - be it a grill, an oven, a microwave - are out. However, foods can be prepared using appliances such as dehydrators or blenders as long as no actual cooking takes place.
Much of the raw food diet consists of primarily eating fruits, vegetables, nuts and sprouted grains. Some raw food diets even go so far as eating raw meat and eggs – a practice that should honestly be avoided given the potential of consuming harmful bacteria such as salmonella or, worse, E. coli.
The high amounts of fruits and vegetables in the raw food diet make it incredibly high in essential nutrients and vitamins. Natural raw foods are also low in calories, sodium and sugar. This makes the diet, potentially, an ideal one for losing weight. The lack of saturated fats and processed sugar of any kind is a definite high point of the raw food diet.
Unfortunately, aside from nuts, protein is hard to come by. Vegans and vegetarians can easily find an abundance of protein in beans and legumes, but these require cooking. For building lean muscle at the Zgym, the raw food diet can be quite limiting. As many of you already know, protein is essential for building muscle. Also, the lack of carbs in the form of healthy grains and legumes doesn’t allow our bodies to effectively fuel up and recover before and after workouts.
The argument raw foodists make that cooking destroys nutrients and makes food toxic is not a very convincing one either. According to Dr. David Katz at Yale University, the enzymes found in fruits and vegetables raw foodists claim cooking destroys are naturally eliminated by our digestive process anyway. Also, while it’s true that eating some foods in raw form is more beneficial from a nutritional standpoint, some foods are actually more nutritional when cooked as well. Dr. Katz points out that foods such as tomatoes and eggs are more nutritious when cooked. And, of course, as I said earlier, Dr. Katz insists that cooking is the best method to insure that we’ve rid our food of potentially harmful bacteria.
Have any of you tried the raw food diet? What did you like or dislike about it? Share your thoughts with me.
The post The Raw Food Diet appeared first on Zuzka Light.