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

Raw foodism (or rawism) is a lifestyle promoting the consumption of uncooked, unprocessed, and often organic foods as a large percentage of the diet. 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), eggs, fish, meat, and unpasteurized dairy products (such as raw milk, cheese and yogurt). A raw foodist (or 'rawist') is a person who consumes primarily raw food, or all raw food, depending on how strict the diet is. Raw foodists typically believe that the greater the percentage of raw food in the diet, the greater the health benefits.

Members of the raw food community believe that raw food encourages weight loss and prevents and/or heals many forms of sickness and many chronic diseases. Richard Wrangham, a critic of raw foodism, argues that cooking is obligatory for humans, as of millions of years ago.^[1][2][3] Many archaeologists, paleontologists and anthropologists, such as Professor Loring Brace and Henry Bunn, however, have argued that Wrangham is incorrect, and skeptics have pointed out that Wrangham is a chimp researcher and not a specialist in human evolution.^[4]

Background

History

The consumption of raw food is a universal practice among animal species. There is, as yet, no clear evidence as to when cooking was invented, with Wrangham arguing that cooking was invented as far back as 1.8 million to 2.3 million years ago, to others arguing that cooking was invented as late as 40,000 or 10,000 years ago. Evidence of fire is inconclusive as wildfires started by lightning-strikes are still common in East Africa and other wild areas, and it is difficult to determine as to when fire was used for cooking, as opposed to just for warmth or keeping predators away. The majority of anthropologists place the advent of cooking at around 250,000 years ago.^[5]

Raw foods gained prominence 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 especially prevalent in the Western United States, like California where many resources are available for one 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. It is believed that these enzymes interact with other substances, notably the enzymes produced by the body itself, to aid the digestion process.

Francis M. Pottenger, Jr.'s laboratory work with generations of cats fed on either cooked or raw foods concluded that a diet exclusively of raw milk and meat was the only adequate intake of nutrition which ensured the maintenance of optimal health for the cats.^[6][7]

Leslie Kenton's book, The New Raw Energy, in 1984 popularized food such as sprouts, seeds, and fresh vegetable juices, which have become staples in many different food cultures. 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,^[8] and numerous all-raw cookbooks have been published.^[9]

Currently, there exist many proponents of the Raw Foods lifestyle, that have resources available on proper nutrition and transitional lifestyle diet changes. Among them, include Matt Monarch, Angela Stokes, Shazzie, David Jubb Ph.D., Norman Walker Ph.D.,Carol Alt, Karl Loren, Douglas Graham Ph.D., David Wolfe, Alissa Cohen, Aajonus Vonderplanitz, Dr Mercola, Vinny Pinto and Paul Nison. 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.

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 enzymes which aid digestion, meaning that the body's own enzymes may work unimpeded in regulating the body's metabolic processes, and heating food above 110-120 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.
• Raw foods contain bacteria and other micro-organisms that affect the immune system and digestion by populating the digestive tract with gut flora.
• Raw foods have higher nutrient values than foods which have been cooked.
• Wild foods are the most nutritious raw foods.
• 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.

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."^[10]

In a 1936 work entitled Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, dentist Weston A. Price observed dental degeneration in the first generation who abandoned traditional nutrient dense foods which included unprocessed raw foods e.g. unpasteurised milk products, fruit and dried meats. Price stated that the parents of such first generation children had excellent jaw development and dental health, while their children had malocclusion and tooth decay and attributed this to their new modern insufficient nutrient diet (which would have included a proportion of raw food).

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.

Recent research

A 2005 study has shown that a raw food vegetarian diet is associated with a lower bone density.^[11] One study of raw veganism shows amenorrhea and underweightness in women,^[12] and another one indicates an increased risk of dental erosion.^[13]

Raw food diets

The following popular diets include only raw foods:

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.^{citation needed}

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.^{citation needed} 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.

Avoiding poisoning

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.^[15]
• 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, or neutralized by cooking in a deep fryer.^[16] In processed potatoes such as chips and fries, there is little hazard since peels are removed and they are fried.^[17][18]
• Raw foods contain bacteria and may contain parasites, which may cause foodborne illnesses. Washing properly according to Health Department will cleanse the food properly along with proper storage.

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).^{citation needed}

Notable contemporary proponents include several published authors and lecturers such as David Wolfe, Shazzie, 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.^[19] 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.^{citation needed} Famous natural hygienists have included Herbert Shelton and Anthony Robbins.^{citation needed}

Criticism and controversies

Richard Wrangham, a specialist in chimp behaviour and a critic of raw foodism argues that cooking is obligatory for humans, as of millions of years ago.^{[1][2][3][20][21]} Many archaeologists, paleontologists and anthropologists, such as Professor Loring Brace and Henry Bunn, have argued that Wrangham is incorrect, and skeptics have pointed out that Wrangham is a chimp researcher and not a specialist in human evolution.^[4] Henry Bunn, Loring Brace, and most other anthropologists state that cooking fires began in earnest barely 250,000 years ago, when ancient hearths, earth ovens, burnt animal bones, and flint appear across Europe and the middle East.^[5]

See also

• Cooking
• Food safety
• Healthy diet
• Whole foods

References