What is raw food?
Raw food is a dietary system that is based on foods that have not been cooked, such as fried, boiled, baked, etc. Raw fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds, vegetable oils (but only cold-pressed), cereal grains, dried fruits (no condiments) are allowed.
Raw food is often referred to as a type of vegetarianism, but its main factor is the preservation of the nutritional value of foods due to the absence of heat treatment. There is no definitive scientific evidence as to whether raw food is appropriate at any time in a person’s life.
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The Rationale for Raw Foods
Proponents of raw eating believe there are a number of benefits to this type of diet:
- The thermal processing of foods destroys beneficial vitamins and trace elements;
- Heat treating produces chemical compounds that are not naturally occurring and pose health risks (trans-isomers, trans-fats, dioxin, etc.)
- The variety of foods and flavor enhancers leads to unwanted overeating;
- Digestion difficulties when mixing different foods, and a number of vitamins cannot be absorbed;
- Micronutrients and vitamins are difficult to absorb due to heat processing and changes in the connectivity of states.
Types of Raw Foods
There are several variations of row housing, which are quite different from each other, and what they have in common is the refusal to eat food prepared by heat treatment.
Varieties of raw housing:
- Omnivorous – any food is eaten raw or dried (meat, fish, seafood, eggs, milk). However, sometimes milk is excluded;
- Vegetarian – fish and meat are excluded, but milk and eggs and dairy products can be eaten;
- Vegan – the most common type of raw food diet. All animal products are excluded from the diet, only raw vegetable food is allowed;
- Carnivorous (raw meat-eating) – the least spread type of raw eating, the essence of which is eating raw seafood, fish, meat, game, animal fat and eggs. At the same time fruits and vegetables are reduced to a minimum in the diet;
- Frugality – eating raw berries and fruits. Cereals and vegetables that are not fruits (carrots, beets, potatoes, radishes, cabbage) are absent from the diet.
Rawfooding: benefits and harms
It is believed that raw eating is beneficial for the reason that originally in the human food chain there was no cooked food, which does not exist in nature, as well as meat and milk, so it is raw food – the most biologically natural.
However, like any other food system, raw eating has pros and cons.
The benefits of raw eating are:
- Getting rid of illnesses: some people become raw eaters because of illnesses. For example, there are cases when this type of diet helped to get rid of hypertension, arthritis, headaches, bronchial asthma;
- Energy boosting: raw people notice a noticeable increase in energy, their thoughts become clearer and their head becomes clearer;
- Raw people sleep less, needing only 5-6 hours or less to rest. They wake up easily, without feeling weak or headaches from lack of sleep;
- Losing weight is another important advantage of raw food. Of course, giving up bread, buns, various meat dishes, etc. plays a big role. – A significant result is already noticeable in 1.5-2 months after the beginning of such a diet. That is why in recent times raw food is increasingly used as a diet, eating this way temporarily. In this case, raw food is not always adhered to strictly, allowing themselves sometimes to eat a product that has undergone heat treatment.
Harms of raw eating:
- Deficiency of vitamins and minerals, particularly magnesium and potassium, due to the lack of which after switching to raw food about the third week you can feel numbness in the legs and hands. In addition, wounds may not heal well, allergies and loss of strength may occur;
- Digestive disorders: some raw eat everything raw, not knowing how to combine products. However, this is completely wrong, because certain products cannot be assimilated together, because of which they harm the body. So, in no case you should not mix vegetables with fruits, and proteins with carbohydrates, it is not recommended to combine honey and nuts;
- Aggression: new rawhiders often show aggression, which is connected with the rejection of grains (bread, porridges, pastries), because of which there is a lack of B vitamins responsible for equilibrium in the body. Some rawhiders show aggression toward people who do not adhere to a similar diet, as representatives of another (enemy) tabor;
- Guilt: In case a beginning rawhide eater falls off the wagon and eats some forbidden food, he cannot get rid of his guilt for a long time afterwards. Psychologists advise to think about the fact that a person became a rawhide exclusively for himself, so you need to listen to your body and pay less attention to the opinion of others.
Conclusion
In this article, I have tried to answer the question “What is raw food? Regardless of whether you are ready to take up raw food, you need to consult a doctor before going on a diet. Your health needs to be checked more thoroughly. I wish you good health and a stable nervous system!
