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In the harvest season, canned and fatty foods disappear from the refrigerator, giving way to fresh fruits and vegetables: you begin to willingly believe raw foodists who claim that life must be sought in the living. Theory and practice of a raw food diet: its pros and cons.
Not so long ago, while traveling in India, I met actress Corinne Norton from the sunny state of California. While we were all admiring the fragrant dal and toasted chapatis, Korine, asking the waiter for hot water, soaked something green in it. Then she ate this green mass along with a handful of something dried, similar to nuts or dried fruits. All this was very reminiscent of the astronauts’ food: it was packed in separate bags, sometimes in the form of a powder, sometimes in the form of plates, and was stored in her fanny bag. She brought two large suitcases with her to India: one with clothes, the other with food. It turns out that organizing your diet for a raw foodist is not so easy: even leaving California for a week, Korine carefully considers how much and what kind of food she needs to take with her. Central America, unlike Los Angeles and New York, still prefers hamburgers, so health food stores are a rarity there. Korine thinks it’s worth the trouble: she’s willing to spend hours and hours talking enthusiastically about the miracles that have happened to her since switching to a raw vegan diet. She recently hosted a seven-day Living Foods workshop and is now writing a book called Living Foods. She kindly agreed to introduce me to the world of “living food” and introduce me to her way of life.
With what it is eaten
It is curious that the raw food diet in the West and in our country is different. Our raw foodists include fresh milk or dairy products (but not cheese) in their diet, while a raw vegan diet is actively promoted in the USA, Europe and Australia. Vegan means the complete absence of all animal products (even honey). Raw means the complete absence of heat-treated products. The main postulates of all raw foodists can be reduced to two phrases: “We are what we eat” and “Food subjected to heat treatment is poison.” The first statement is widely known and is the motto of all naturopaths. But why poison? “Heating causes chemical changes in foods,” explains David Wolfe, author of numerous raw food books, the most popular of which is Nature’s First Law (Maul Brothers Publishing, 2003). “Not a single living creature on the planet, with the exception of man, does not expose the food he eats to either cooking, or frying, or processing with chemicals,” David Wolfe argues his point of view. “The nutrients contained in the cells of living (that is, raw) plants are the best building material for organs and tissues and, most importantly, contribute to the development of an Earth-friendly consciousness.”
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To each according to his needs.
Most of the adherents of such a diet claim that thanks to it they managed not only to get rid of excess weight, digestive disorders, migraines and other diseases, but also to permanently change their mental state. For Korine, the turning point was reading Wolfe’s book: “I’ve been experimenting with diets since I was thirteen. I knew everything about food. She went through a wide variety of cleansing of the body, but did not find any satisfaction, no health, no happiness. This book changed me in a day. Without exaggeration! She explains the benefits of a raw food diet in such an accessible and logical way that I just stopped treating cooked foods as food.” However, not all raw foodists are so radical: many believe that it is much more important that the diet is balanced. Bryan Au, author of Raw in 10 Minutes (Trafford Publishing POD, 10), explains: and body needs. A 2005% raw food diet is not for everyone. Some people benefit from eating about 100% of cooked foods. It is more important to monitor the level of sugar and maintain normal microflora. And to consume a large amount of honey, dates, bananas, as many adherents of a raw food diet do, is not only not healthy, but even vice versa! Therapist Benjamin Kim, a professor at the University of Toronto (Canada), believes that even the level of sugar in ordinary apples is much higher than the natural norm: after all, cultivating fruit trees for many centuries, a person deliberately chose those that bring sweeter fruits. And eating sugary fruits in excess, says the professor, depletes the insulin apparatus and carries the risk of developing diabetes.
hot-cold
Some products should be consumed raw, others are more successfully digested after heat treatment, and still others are better to “sour”, that is, ferment, – this only increases their digestibility.
- Some antioxidants, such as polyphenols, carotenes, and lycopenes, tolerate high temperatures well; moreover, during the cooking process, their concentration increases. Therefore, heat treatment can be subjected to tomatoes, carrots, bell peppers.
- Cereals and legumes are best boiled or stewed – during the cooking process, some substances that make it difficult to digest food are destroyed, such as emoaglutinins contained in legumes and antitrypsin present in cereals.
- Vegetable oils rich in polyunsaturated fats (especially soybean, corn and sunflower) oxidize already at low temperatures, so it is better to use them only when cold.
- Milk is easier to digest after fermentation, that is, turning into yogurt, kefir, yogurt. It is better not to heat these products to keep the microorganisms contained in them alive, which support the intestinal microflora. The same goes for some pickles and sourdoughs, such as sauerkraut.
Anton Popov
The struggle of contradictions
The raw food diet is met with great resistance both among doctors and among naturopaths of various schools. The most common cons are a lack of vitamin B12, essential amino acids for protein synthesis, calcium, and a lack of calories. But the raw food gurus are publishing new books with new, science-based facts about how it’s good for you. How to deal with such conflicting assessments? Here is one example: a group of scientists at the St. Louis School of Medicine at the University of Washington (USA), led by Professor Luigi Fontana, studied raw vegans aged 33 to 85 years *. All participants adhered to a similar diet for at least three and a half years. As it turned out in the course of research, their bone mass is much less than that of other traditionally eating people. This is especially noticeable in the pelvis and lower back, which usually indicates the risk of developing osteoporosis. But in this case, no signs of the development of the disease were found. People who are systematically short of calories and nutrients, according to the academic point of view on this issue, should have died by now, but they live and feel great. These facts lead us to an amazing truth: we are not only what we eat, but also what we think. And this is no less important than the presence of vitamins in food.
Superpy
Among advocates of a raw food diet in the US and Europe, superfoods are popular – super-energy foods enriched with all kinds of minerals and vitamins. Some varieties of this superfood can significantly enrich our diet.
- Blue-green algae, their varieties and combinations. Our most famous is spirulina. In the United States, chlorella is actively consumed. Their powdered mixtures are super popular, which are recommended to be added to cocktails, juices, salads.
- Berries of the Tibetan barberry (goji berries). In Chinese medicine, they are used as a medicine, they contain 18 types of amino acids and 21 minerals (including zinc, copper, iron, calcium, which are especially important for vegetarians) and a very large amount of vitamin C.
- Raw chocolate (or cocoa beans). It is believed that it gives the body all the necessary substances (including protein), contains an incredibly large amount of magnesium, is an excellent antioxidant and antidepressant.
Power of thought
Many adherents of the raw food diet have made their choice, guided not so much by health considerations, but by ethical, environmental and spiritual motives. “The maintenance of a livestock farm takes ten times more water than the cultivation of vegetable crops. In addition, a couple of livestock farms produce more polluting waste than several large industrial cities combined!” says David Wolfe.
It is the ethical principles of non-violence (ahimsa) that underlie the vegan diet of many famous yoga teachers. American psychotherapist and renowned yoga teacher Gabriel Cousens believes that switching to a raw diet can get rid of not only depression, but also drug and alcohol addiction.
The controversy of the wise
Ancient health systems, such as Tibetan and Chinese medicine, do not consider a raw food diet to be beneficial and hardly agree even with vegetarianism. According to Ayurveda, raw vegetables are full of trace elements and vitamins, but they are not easy to digest. They require much more “digestive fire” than cooked vegetables. Fire seems to do some of the work for our body, as a result of which it can break down and absorb much more nutrients without consuming a lot of energy. “It is good to use such a diet as a preventive measure or as a means of cleansing,” says Dr. Madhusudanan, a specialist at the Lotos Ayurvedic Center in Moscow. “But it can be said for sure that it is harmful to people of the Watt (wind) constitution, thin, prone to dry skin and brittle nails.” Naturopathic nutritionist Marina Popovich is in favor of natural nutrition with both hands, but would not recommend such a diet to everyone: “Someone can eat raw vegetables three times a day, and someone else has problems with digestion. The diet must be selected individually. Most of us benefit from switching to vegetables and fruits, but only for a short time.” The conclusion suggests itself: raw foods are certainly healthy, but it is better to find the optimal balance between fresh and cooked food. The rule suggested by many naturopaths—cook 30% of the foods in your diet—seems very reasonable. And most importantly: giving preference to the colorful abundance of fruits, vegetables and greens, we will add positive, positive not only to food, but also to thoughts – then there will simply be no time or place left for negative and harmful things.
* Archives of Internal Medicine, 2005
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