Raw Food Diet

[Scrambled]

Has anyone here followed a raw food diet, either just for a short period or as a way of life?

[Gwenoakes]

Nope, not me, but the dogs are on the raw food diet, but that is meat and veg.

Is it just veg and fruit? Cant say I have heard of that particular diet, have heard of the cabbage diet though and from what I was told it was yukky.

[Stef]

I sort of do during the summer. I can't do it 'properly' as sprouted beans of all sorts make me violently ill.

But I do have a tendency to eat fruit and veg as they come, or only lightly cooked - like wilted spinach - when the weather gets very hot, some years for a couple of months. But I am very aware that without the sprouting beans and with my anaemia I can't really do it properly.

I think what I am trying to say is, it is quit easy if the weather is right

[Meanqueen]

I wouldn't say I follow a raw food diet, but I do make smoothies with a blender, using any vegetables and fruit I have. Sometimes stick a load of greens in and zap it and drink it. I have it in place of a lunch if I can't be bothered to cook, never fancy it at breakfast though. I eat a lot of salads, eat raw spinach and mushrooms.
Ilona

[Scrambled]

Is it just veg and fruit?

From what I can gather, it's solely raw food, so yes, veg and fruit, but also nuts and seeds. The gist of it (I think) is that you get more nutrition from uncooked, unprocessed food and (again, from what I can gather) advocates of it seem to report boosted energy levels, better skin etc etc.

Just wondered if anyone had done it and if they'd noticed much of a difference to their well-being. I think some people do it permanently, as a way of life.

Might give it a go for a short while - feel a bit sluggish at the moment and this does appeal to me for some reason.

a lot of salads, eat raw spinach and mushrooms.
Ilona

Good idea - l also like raw cauli and brocolli, so lots of different salad potential.

[jemberelli]

Boy George eats a raw food diet. Some of the juice combinations that he has are very interesting. I will have a look when I get chance and post a few so you get an idea of the sort of stuff you can do other than just salads etc!

[Scrambled]

Boy George eats a raw food diet. Some of the juice combinations that he has are very interesting. I will have a look when I get chance and post a few so you get an idea of the sort of stuff you can do other than just salads etc!

Great - thanks very much, I'll look out for your post

[jemberelli]

Bah, just spent ages hunting through his tweets for recipes & everything I typed has gone! Have a puppy attached to my arm at the mo so will have another go once she has skulked off!

[Freeranger]

My understanding of this is that it's a bit over-rated. The body can't easily digest some nutrients from raw foods and you apparently do better with them lightly cooked rather than totally raw. A boring response, but you have to eat more raw food to take in the same nutrients as with the cooked, so it's also quite difficult to do.

[Scrambled]

Not a boring response, Freerange - thanks for your input

Sounds like not only would it be quite difficult, but also quite expensive if you have to eat more food if it's raw than you would cooked.

[saint-spoon]

The body can't easily digest some nutrients from raw foods and you apparently do better with them lightly cooked rather than totally raw.

That is certainly true for things such as tomatoes, more of the nutrients, especially the anti-oxidents are released on cooking, tinned tomatoes are better than fresh. The cooking process breaks down the cellulose in the cell walls allowing us to access the nutrients within. Other primates that live off a purely herbivorous diet have much bigger guts than we do, we are omnivorous and are no longer equipped to efficiently break down cellulose. As was mentioned earlier you need a lot more raw food for the same energy.

The mastery of fire is seen by many studying human evolution as one of the key points; it allowed us to diversify in what we ate and also meant that we required a lot less food in order to survive. Sorry I went a bit there.