Has anyone here tried a raw food diet?

[TalkingHead]

I see Robert recommending this to just about everyone on his forum. Has anyone here tried a raw food diet and how did it affect your energy levels? What are the reasons for not eating cooked food even occasionally; as this seems like it might be a bit of trouble?

Well, the lack of washing up appeals to me...

Joking aside, I'm interested in this myself, I'm already vegetarian but I still end up eating a lot of processed stuff, plus preparation time kills me.. I love to cook, don't get me wrong, but I don't have so much time these days.

I often end up munching huge amounts of fruit..ok, pineapple, just pineapple. I feel AWESOME when i have eaten it. I think what I need is inspiration and simplicity, and then I'd go raw, I don't want to be doing mega amounts of non-cooking prep, you know? It seems silly to spend as long messing about with raw stuff as it does to say cook veggie shepherd's pie (over an hour) :roll:

[Jaco]

I don't know... It's the parasites thing for me, I just don't want to get them. :?

[sleeper]

I see Robert recommending this to just about everyone on his forum. Has anyone here tried a raw food diet and how did it affect your energy levels? What are the reasons for not eating cooked food even occasionally; as this seems like it might be a bit of trouble?

i'm on a nearly all-raw-food diet and have been for several months now. Mine is fairly unusual and complex so i won't spell it out here (maybe later though).

To be completely honest i feel much better than i ever imagined possible and that's no joke. i lost 10 pounds right away, plus i have tons of physical energy to exercise and do fun stuff.

Cooking food breaks down a number of the nutrients in the food; it can make starches more digestible (kind of good) but it also destroys some vitamins and other things (bad). Although mainstream medicine doesn't promote it (probably because they make more profits when we're sick so they want us to be sick), a large number of credible health professionals are promoting whole food and raw food diets, as well as the idea that most (if not all) illnesses are caused by nutritional deficiencies and they can be cured simply by reverting to a natural and healthy diet of unprocessed food.

I'm not trying to speak on Robert's behalf, this is all my opinion here.

anyway, it had a small but significant affect on my energy levels. overall, my energy flows more freely. meat moves slowly through the bowels, for instance, and it can make energy raising more painstaking than i'd like. i can raise more energy faster to the solar plexus now that i'm on the new diet (unless i'm gassy and bloated which does happen).

i also think more clearly which helps a lot. i could go on and on and on about this.

you need a basic understanding of nutrition before you undertake this diet. many people do it before they have the knowledge, and they become malnourished and get adrenal burnout. new vegans subsist on far far far too much wheat and yogurt and fruit (basically sugar, sugar and sugar); and overtax their adrenal glands (among other things). which is why they tend to feel great when they start the new diet but burn out on it 6 months later. so get a book on it first. and be careful.


I don't know... It's the parasites thing for me, I just don't want to get them. :?

well some medical facilities actually put parisites in people as a modern cure for skin conditions and allergies and other things. remember, our bodies are not able to cope with this new sterile environment. we have a long history of being in the wilderness and eating what nature supplies for us. so it's not as simple of an issue as it seems.

[Jaco]

nutritional deficiencies and they can be cured simply by reverting to a natural and healthy diet of unprocessed food.

You eat unprocessed food? Do you mean that you grow plants and raise animals yourself? Because if you buy your food from a shop it is processed in many ways.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_processing


well some medical facilities actually put parasites in people as a modern cure for skin conditions and allergies and other things. remember, our bodies are not able to cope with this new sterile environment. we have a long history of being in the wilderness and eating what nature supplies for us. so it's not as simple of an issue as it seems.

True, but applying parasites takes place under controlled conditions for specific cases. Otherwise paratisation can be a significant strain to the body. And food is one of the main sources of contamination.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_parasites_(human)

On the other hand, humanity and our ancestors have been using fire for processing food since long ago. We are cooking and baking since times forgotten. Processing of raw food allowed humans to take grip of new food sources. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_of_fire_by_early_humans#Changes_to_diet

I am glad that your diet works for you. I am just saying that things are as they are for a reason. Perhaps things are going out of hand for some time with our foods, but still, in the past people used food processing, and they kept using it, because it was beneficial.

However, now times are different and because of the abundance of things and because of technological progress, we can be picky and come up with different philosophies. Philosophies which can work in our times but would not have worked a thousand, or even a hundred years ago.

[sleeper]

i do have a large garden and fruit trees, as well as a number of friends and neighbors who do as well. I buy a large majority of my foods from them and from farmers markets; where i know that the foods have not been processed. as i said, my diet is not simply explained or categorized. I've been working hard for at least 9 years to get it straight and to increase my knowledge.

regarding parasites, little is known about them except that 3rd world countries have bad problems with them. But in America, they are the least of our worries. compare the wiki articles re: paristes to the one re: food processing; the processed foods are far far far more harmful. also, our bodies are well equipped to remove the parasites on their own. radiation or any other scientific method not only destroys the parasites but the food as well. we can have all the radiated food that we want and we can starve to death while we eat it.

some foods have to be cooked such as acorns, which provide starches in an undigestable form unless they are cooked.

the raw foods diet is superior to essentially all other optimal-health diets because it has basically zero room for error and the proof is in the results: the few people that have actually commited themselves to this diet almost always report miraculous cures of their ailments (among other good things).

I have to differ with your last line, though. Technology is what is poisoning our food and therefore it doesn't allow us to be picky, it forces us to.

I agree that most diets are philosophical in nature but that is because nutrition is extremely complex and a deep subject; people need a plan that they can stick to and a plan that makes sense to them.