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Raw Foods

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David Wolfe

Notes about eating raw foods

To make their meals more digestible and palatable, raw foodists employ preparation techniques including sprouting, juicing, soaking, blending, and dehydrating. In general, raw diners aim for a diet of at least 75 percent raw foods; hardcore enthusiasts shoot for 100 percent raw.

Benefits of raw foods

  • low in sodium
  • high in potassium, magnesium, fiber, and phytochemicals,
  • it can help dieters to easily shed pounds and can also help fend off diseases like diabetes and cancer, particularly colon cancer
  • little or no saturated fat and trans fats, can also be extremely heart healthy.
  • A 2005 Journal of Nutrition study found that a long-term raw food diet can lower and balance serum LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, thus reducing the risk of heart disease.

Proponents of raw food diet

designer Donna Karan, model Carol Alt, and actors Woody Harrelson and Demi Moore, Wayne Green

Problems with Raw Food Diet

Suggestions from David Wolfe:

Q: Some people develop problems over time on raw vegan diets that cause them either to switch back to some cooked food or add raw animal foods to their diets--problems like loss of strength, slower recovery from wounds or heavy exercise, loss of libido, digestive problems, even hypoglycemia and pernicious anemia. When they switch eating some cooked foods, dairy and/or meat, these problems vanish. What do you think is going on here?

A: 1. Loss of strength is typically a symptom of detoxification. Once one starts eating all raw, the blood pools in the internal organs to heal damage caused by years of unnatural nutrition. This may cause muscular strength to decrease. Time, a consistent raw diet, and consistent exercise will eradicate the problem.

You can build incredible strength on a raw-diet as my partner Stephen Arlin has demonstrated.

2. Slow recovery from wounds or heavy exercise-May be caused by periods of detoxification or by too much sweet, hybridized fruit in the diet and/or a lack of minerals. I have never actually worked with anyone with this type of problem. My own and my partners' experiences have shown us that getting sore muscles and healing slowly are the direct products of eating cooked foods.

3. Loss of libido-This may be a good thing!! It is part of the healing process. Sexual fluids are highly charged-too many secretions of sexual fluids can enervated the body. Time, a consistent raw-diet, and the beauty that both of these bring about in your body will eventually arouse the opposite sex and ignite your own libido once again.

4. Digestive problems--May be caused by too much mixing of raw foods or by a corruption in the digestive tract due to fecal impactions. For this problem I recommend a series of colonics (5 to 10) to clear out the colon of putrefied waste matter and a mono-diet (one type of food per meal).

5. Hypoglycemia--Typically experienced by those who still eat bread, other cooked starches, and even refined sugars. This causes a fluctuation in blood sugar which can never level out properly unless one goes all-raw. I would recommend a diet heavy in green vegetables and low-sugar fruits, at least initially, for anyone who has experienced hypoglycemia. I've worked with several people with severe hypoglycemia causing uncontrollable eating binges who've been able to normalize on the diet I have described.

6. Pernicious anemia--Caused by too much sweet, hybridized fruit in the diet over a long period of time. Consistently add bulk and fiber in the form of green-leafy vegetables to the diet to alleviate this problem. Also, drinking freshly-made green juices will help.

Once any cooked foods or raw or cooked animal products are eaten detoxification immediately stops, so one may suddenly feel "better!" In exactly the same fashion, a cigarette smoker might go without cigarettes and feel terrible (detoxification) and then suddenly feel "better" after lighting up!

According to Jeanette Bronee, a Holistic Health Counselor and Nourishment Consultant from New York state:

“The problem with raw food,” says Bronee, “is that we can’t necessarily absorb it. Sometimes, to be able to absorb food, we need to cook it, and that varies from person to person really.”

According to Bronee, people with weak digestive systems, “which, by the way, is most people out there, people who eat excessive amounts of sugar and highly processed foods,” may simply not possess the digestive enzymes required to break down the nutrients in raw foods.

Genetics and culture can play an important role as well. “If you have lived your life thus far on traditional cooked Indian cuisine,” saysMetsovas, “your physiology has a blueprint to metabolize foods in a certain way.”

Both Metsovas and Bronee agree that a person’s digestive enzymescan slowly be “trained” to tolerate raw foods, but both advise a cautious approach. “Transitioning to a raw food lifestyle should be treated as a process and not as an instant switch,” saysMetsovas. “Beware of the detoxifying properties a live food dietis capable of producing.” Headaches, nausea, lightheadedness, and extreme cravings are all symptomatic of rapid detoxification and a good cue to take it slow.

Other points:

  • cooking can actually make certain nutrients easier to absorb, as with the beta-carotene in carrots.
    • some foods-tomatoes, for instance-become more nutritious when cooked
  • overeating of acid fruits
    • the acidity can eat away the enamel of your teeth, or cause other problems.
    • people go on “grapefruit cures” and in just 7 days softened the enamel of their teeth, to the point that they chipped a tooth!
    • Citrus fruits to beware are: oranges, pineapple, lemons, and most citrus.
    • Recommendation: maximum of 2 big oranges per day, or 1 grapefruit, or half a pineapple.
  • overeating dried fruits
    • digestive problems (gas) and dental problems (stickiness).
    • Dried fruits include raisins, dried figs, apricots, and even fresh dates.
  • overeating nuts
    • too much fat because of a lot of avocados, oils, and nuts.
  • Many people who are on a raw foods diet experience digestive problems, dizziness & some difficulty concentrating (similar to the worst extreme in going cold turkey with coffee). The degree of the problems seemed to correlate with how drastic a change the raw diet is from their regular diet. Going back to a non-raw diet sometimes goes best with a slow reintroduction of foods, like you naturally lean towards after a bad bout of flu.
  • Salmonella risks:
    • Raw foods should be thoroughly washed
    • Cantaloupe is one of many fruits that can host a very nasty form of salmonella - wash rind thoroughly before cutting link
      • Mexican-grown Susie brand cantaloupe

Raw food references

See also:

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