Is an All Raw diet ok for your body?
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M$4 Answers
Humans are omnivores but we have spent thousands of years cooking our food. Our digestive tracts have adapted for certain bacteria to flourish. This bacteria is helpful (but only where it is) in the digestion of foods humans commonly eat. Introducing an all raw diet can and likely will disturb the delicate balance we have. Worse yet, there is a reason why we started cooking our foods. Harmful bacteria can easily be killed by heating food.
The reason given for many people's choice of raw diets is that cooking destroys helpful agents in uncooked food. While this can be debated, the increased chance of catching a nasty bug from uncooked food can not.
Use your head when choosing what diet to eat. Don't listen to dogma or wishful thinking. If it sounds like BS it probably is. Digestion is science but most people giving advice on this matter aren't scientists.
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Potential harmful effects of cooked foods
Raw food dieters claim that cooking food produces harmful chemical toxins. Some of these concerns are accepted by science but some are speculative. Registered dietician, Karen Schroeder says, "Neither the American Cancer Society (ACS) nor the National Cancer Institute (NCI) goes so far as to recommend a raw food diet to reduce the risk of cancer from these chemicals. Instead, they stress that following a healthful diet—one rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, both raw and cooked—is still the best known way to reduce cancer risk."
However, there still remain many negative points, the below is a list of the biggest danger of some raw foods:
Avoiding poisoning
As the consumption of raw foods gains popularity, some potentially unsafe foods have re-entered the diets of humans. However, the following list includes many foods which are rarely promoted by the educated proponents of Raw Foodism, especially beans or legumes.
Buckwheat greens are toxic when raw, particularly if juiced or eaten in large quantities by fair skinned individuals. The chemical component fagopyrin is known to cause severe photosensitivity and other dermatological complaints.
Kidney beans, including sprouts, are toxic when raw, due to the chemical phytohaemagglutinin.
Alfalfa sprouts contain the toxin canavanine.
Some types of raw cassava or cassava flour can be toxic.
Raw eggs contain avidin, a vitamin B7 or biotin inhibitor, which can cause “egg white injury”. As many as 24 egg whites would have to be eaten to inactivate biotin. Avidin is denatured by heat.
Raw seeds of the genus lathyrus (peas), can cause lathyrism.
Raw brassica species can contain glucosinolate.
Several seeds contain poison, such as Apricot kernels, which contain the toxin cyanide.
Raw parsnips contain furanocoumarin.
Raw foods, particularly raw meat, may contain harmful bacteria and their associated bacterial toxins. Other parasites and viruses may also be present, such as toxoplasma, trichinella, or rotavirus, which may cause serious foodborne illnesses.
Raw milk may contain Mycobacteria bovis (which can cause non-pulmonary tuberculosis) and brucella bacteria.
Raw sweet potato, cabbage, cauliflower, turnips, rutabaga, canola oil, cassava, pinenuts, mustard, millet, soybeans and peanuts contain small amounts of Goitrogens which can interfere with iodine utilization and worsen hypothyroidism.
Please see the category plant toxins for further relevant articles.
The below link provides details on all the cons of raw foods. The one beneath it containing the pros and the health benefits.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raw_food#Criticism_and_controversies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raw_food#Potential_harmful_effects_of_cooked_foods
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M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
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The following celebrities are on a raw food diet:
Beyonce, Uma Thurman, Woody Harrelson, Lisa Bonet, Robin Williams and Alicia Silver and Charlie Trotter.
http://nov55.com/hea/food.html
http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/rawfood.htm
http://www.thebestofrawfood.com/demi-moores-raw-food-diet.html
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http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=cooking-up-bigger-brains
Not only are we designed for processing cooked food, as philipy pointed out, the reason we are around to have this argument is BECAUSE of cooked food. By it's very nature it's superior to raw food for a sentient animal whose brain requires the majority of it's caloric intake.
Yes, it turns out we are now adapted to eat cooked food.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7JuMTlZVvMYou get a lot more nutrients out of cooked food than raw, and as a consequence can have a much smaller gut. It also means you have to eat a much smaller volume of food than if you only ate raw.
If you lived only on raw fruit and veg you'd spend a lot of your time just eating.