In an increasingly obese world, more and more people are having to consider the importance of diet and nutrition. There are many different diets out there, however, and the Raw Food Diet may seem like just another fad – but what is it really, and how does it work?
Advocates of the raw food diet claim that they feel increased energy on this diet and need less sleep. Whether or not this is true, it’s becoming more of a mainstream diet, with items such as Nakd snack bars and Raw Health honey and chocolate bars claiming to boost our wellness and wellbeing appearing on the supermarket shelves. There is even a controversial new restaurant in London called 42° Raw, which doesn’t cook any of its food.
A new recipe book has even been published last month, joining a growing collection of ways to cook food without actually eating like a rabbit and maintaining your health at the same time.
Raw foodism is a movement which involves eating food that has not been processed in any way or cooked. The majority of those who follow the raw food movement are vegetarian or even vegan, although there are a few who will eat some animal products. The majority of them will only eat natural foods such as vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, algae and pulses.
Advocates claim that the diet boosts the energy and the mood of those who follow it. They claim that heating food over 42 degrees destroys the enzymes in the food that are required to keep our bodies healthy and removes the vitamins, minerals and amino acids that can benefit our body, on some level.
Food does not have to be served totally cold, but cannot be heated above 42 degrees.
Research has shown that in actual fact, although some enzymes and nutrients are destroyed by cooking, many vegetables are actually made more digestible (and therefore the nutrients more available) by cooking them.