Raw Food Diet — A Raw Deal?

On the 4th July 2006, an article entitled “Raw Food Diet – A Raw Deal” was posted at LiveScience by Christopher Wanjek. Well It seems to me that the diet has had the raw deal and as this site is influential I wanted to address some of the points raised.

He starts of with a mocking tone which immediately irritated me and then goes on to refer to the diet as ‘whacked’ but to the article…

Firstly he objects to raw food diet proponents claiming it to be a ‘natural diet”. I quote…

“But ‘natural’ is always a dangerous word. Humans have evolved to eat and survive on a wide range of diets. The Inuit have survived thousands of years almost entirely on a diet of raw fish and meat. Some cultures, conveniently in regions of prolonged growing seasons, shun all meat as unnatural.”

A natural diet is one that contains primarily food eaten in an unprepared way. i.e. directly from nature. Therefore that would mean raw where possible. It is true that if you believe the scientists, as humans expanded across the globe, those foods available in their current locale would vary, and would agree that minor ‘adaptions’ have occurred within races due to this fact.

‘Evolved’ is too strong a word here I feel. As far as the Innuit are concerned, their diet would still fall into the natural diet genre. I take his point that natural diets are very varied though and not all vegan and that point is valid. Some cultures shunning meat during prolonged growing seasons? What’s his point here?

Christopher points out that commercial meat and fish products are “loaded with bacteria” and therefore must be cooked. How would this affect the previously mocked raw vegans? I don’t see anyone recommending the consumption of raw commercial meat anyway. There are some groups that advocate raw animal foods, but not commercial stuff.

Anyway, most average Jo/es would be horrified at the thought of raw meat. However most of the bacteria present is due to the industry and methods etc. The innuit as he previously pointed out don’t seem to be bothered about cooking their meat and eat raw… as did our pre-agricultural ancestors for that matter. Chimps don’t seem to have a problem eating raw colobus monkeys either.

He goes on to question why the raw diet folk need to supplement B12 and Zinc and says these are not available in a raw diet. Again I’m confused, which raw diet are you talking about… why raise the meat issue if we are discussing raw vegans?

The B12 issue as with the meat issue is mainly a problem of our food industry and separation from a natural setting. Dirt is everywhere is nature and as you eat the food you eat the dirt along with any bugs that are on it! B12 is produced by naturally occurring bacteria on raw food. However I’m not an advocate of raw veganism as such as I see no natural model for it that I’m aware of so he does have a point here.

Interestingly, last night I came across the The Maker’s Diet (‘The 40 Day Health Experience That Will Change Your Life Forever’) and on first glance looks remarkably like The Zone Diet and Age Power evolutionary approaches. The point here is that he recommends taking ‘Soil Based Organisms’ and of course some people are up in arms.

But if we look at a natural model and compare our lifestyle we can easily see that we are missing some dirt! As biology and nature are exquisitely balanced, it seems reasonable especially considering the B12 issue that we should add it back it.

Incidentally, the reason yogurt is raved about is for very similar organisms that are in the dirt we are missing.

His final attack on ‘raw diets’ although we are still not sure which ones he means, comes in the form of a statement that cooking ‘improves the absorption of carotenoids and other nutrients’. This statement is not backed up either by reason or science but there has been research showing increased levels of certain nutrients when cooked.

My understanding is that cooking breaks down cellulose within vegetables and this allows the body to absorb nutrients that otherwise would be locked behind cellulose walls. So what? Cooking also destoys many other nutrients…lets keep it simple and stick to a natural model.

As far as Christopher’s claim that we are adapted to cooked foods due to the snacking of roasted grasshoppers in bush fires… I resist the urge to mock — no comment!

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