The Explosion Of The Raw Food Diet

It’s almost impossible to find someone in today’s day and age who hasn’t heard of the raw food vegan diet.  YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Google, and all social media platforms are filled with posts about raw food and its many benefits.  In fact, it’s almost impossible not to get pulled into this movement if your new to health and healing the body naturally.  The movement itself is filled with very influential people who claim this diet is the best diet for human health.

Many have made a career (millions) off selling people raw food products and “super foods.”  Others hold conferences where hundreds of people pay to listen to these “guru’s” talk about health and the latest “super foods.”  The movement itself often has a hidden spiritual aspect attached to it that many get wrapped up in when following the diet.  It’s often taught in raw food circles that the cooking of food was what lead us to our current state of health and that raw food cleanses the body and restores ourselves to are once previous state of perfection.

Cooking Food Is Not Natural

Many raw foodist will make the claim that we are the only “animal” to cook their food.  There are many problems with this statement. For one, we aren’t animals, we are HUMAN.  To put humans in the same category as an animal is crazy.  In fact, it’s a smack in the face to creator as we were created in the image of God, not of an animal.  Secondly, many raw foods are loaded full of anti-nutrients such as phytic acid, gluten, tannins, oxalates, and lectins to name a few.  when these anti-nutrients are eaten, they bind to important minerals such as zinc, calcium and magnesium and carry them out of the body.

For example, raw cacao has been the latest craze in the raw vegan community.  They claim this food has the highest anti-oxidant content then any other food and that it is loaded full of magnesium and zinc.  There is a huge market for raw cacao that has not been heated or altered. Unfortunately, what they don’t tell you is that these antioxidants and minerals are bound up in anti-nutrients.  Consequently, when one continuously takes in a food such as raw cacao, they are actually pulling vital minerals out of their body.  In order, to obtain these nutrients found in raw cacao we must prepare it by fermenting, grinding, cooking and cooling.  It’s at this point that we can then begin to safely utilize the nutrients found in cacao.

Unfortunately, cacao is just one of many raw vegan foods that are full of anti-nutrients.  Some raw foodist have become aware of the dangers of anti-nutrients and mineral depletion.  As a result, they will sprout their food in order to lessen the anti-nutrients.  Sprouting keeps the food in its raw state.  However, eating sprouts every meal is not practical and very limiting.

Juicing / Blending And Digestive Health

Juicing and Blending food is notorious in the raw food community.  Very few who are part of the community don’t juice or blend their food at least once a day.  They’re led to believe that this is the best way to absorb the nutrients found in the foods.  This couldn’t be further from the truth.  The same people who make the argument that no animal cooks their food, are the same people pulverizing their food in a man made machine that NO animal in nature ever uses.  However, this is often negated in the community and very few question the normality of the practice.

Now, here lies the problem with blending and juicing of foods.  One must understand that digestion starts in the mouth.  We release a specific enzyme called “amylase” that attaches to the food we are chewing.  Once the food is swallowed, the food bound with amylase reaches the stomach and begins to be further digested by the stomach acid.  The enzyme amylase and the stomach acid work together in order to break the food down.

However, when we bypass the chewing process (blending/juicing) we do not release the enzyme amylase and now the stomach acid becomes overburdened.  If done long enough, the stomach acid will reduce and nutrient adsorption and mineral adsorption will be minimal.  Consequently, even though you may be blending all sorts of raw foods such as: super foods, raw greens and nuts; you will not be absorbing any of it!  To put it simply, if you want to get the most out of what you are eating you need to chew it!  Check out my video below for a further explanation on the subject.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQQPuw_NDYM

Nutrient Deficiencies And Anti-Nutrients

Here is where I see a lot of problems in the raw food community.  Nutrient deficiencies and mineral deficiencies sky rocket after about a year on the raw food diet.  Many get blamed by the community “leaders” that they are doing the diet wrong or that they’re not strict enough an already extreme diet.  Some are even banned on various forums for speaking out against the diet and its many flaws.  If you don’t have anything positive to say about the diet, it will most likely be censored.

As mentioned before, many of these raw fooders are taking in huge amounts of anti-nutrients with every meal.  They believe that sense these foods are so mineral and nutrient dense that they are getting an ample amount of nutrient. However, this idea is dangerous as well as false.  These minerals and nutrients found in MOST raw foods (seeds, nuts, grains) are bound with anti-nutrients.  As a result, the eating of these foods in their raw state will eventually lead to mineral losses.

We must understand that we live on Earth where everything wants to live.  Plants are no different than animals.  The only difference is plants can’t run from its predator.  Anti-nutrients are the plants defense mechanism to fend off predators from over consumption of the plant species.  Luckily, we as humans have found ways to rid these anti-nutrients from plants through soaking, cooking, baking, boiling, etc.

Cholesterol Not Found On Raw Vegan Diet

We have been falsely told that cholesterol is bad and should be avoided at all costs.  Luckily, many are catching on and realizing how important Cholesterol is to the human body.  Cholesterol is needed for hormone production, such as sex hormones, as well as vitamin d synthesis. Those following a long term raw vegan diet often loose their libido and sex drive due to lack of cholesterol.

Many raw food vegans claim that the body manufactures its own cholesterol.  This is true.  However, in my experience it’s not enough.  The body produces its own cholesterol so we don’t die.  Cholesterol is needed for survival and taking drugs to lower it is idiotic.  Unfortunately, the medical establishments tends to shoot the messenger rather than find the true problem…With that said, no cholesterol is found in ANY plant food.

B12 Impossible On A Raw Vegan Diet

This is the biggest argument against the raw food vegan diet.  B12 is not found in any plant or algae.  Many will claim the foods such as chlorella, spriluna, moringa and seaweed contain b12.  However, the b12 found in these foods are b12 analogues and are not the same form found in animal foods and in the body.  Many long term raw fooders have painfully come to the conclusion that b12 is not attainable on the raw vegan diet.  As result, they supplement with an isolated b12 supplement still holding onto the belief that raw veganism is the one and only diet for man.  In fact, it’s a well known fact the long term raw foodist often need b12 injections just to feel normal; how natural..

Raw Vegans Defending The B12 “Myth”

Over the years the raw food community has begun to warn their followers of b12 deficiency and its permanent effects on the central nervous system.  However, rather then admit the raw vegan diet is not optimal, they claim b12 is found in soil and that over washing of fruits and vegetables is why people are becoming deficient on the raw vegan diet.  This statement is 50 percent right and 50 percent false.  B12 does exist in healthy soil, however, no where near the amounts needed for the human body.  Unless you plan on eating buckets of dirt each day obtaining b12 from the soil is not plausible.

Furthermore, I question how absorbable these isolated b12 supplements really are.  One must remember that b12 never presents itself in nature as an isolate.  It’s always bound to various amino acids, proteins and fats.  It also comes with a host of B vitamins such as b1, b2, b3, b5, b6 and b7 that work synergistically together. Taking isolated b12 supplements has no long term science or studies behind it as being effective or safe.

No Culture Has Every Been Vegan

The fact remains that no culture in human history has ever been 100 percent vegan, never mind raw food vegan.  All The cultures and tribes of the world have always eaten some form of animal foods.  Those living closer to the equator have typically eaten less animal foods than those living far from the equator.  However, they ALL eat some form animal food.  Furthermore, they all eat food that has been prepared so that it is edible.  Modern day food resembles nothing of its wild food ancestors.  When one emerges themselves in nature, they quickly begin to understand that all foods need to processed in some way (such as cooking) in order to make them edible.

The raw food community loves to throw the China Study into the face of those who disagree with the movement.  For the sake of time, I will not go into detail on how flawed this study is.  However, even if The China Study was legitimate, all the people observed in this study ate animal foods! They just consumed them in smaller amounts.  The China Study has no weight in the raw food vegan community as it DID NOT observe 100 percent raw vegan people.  For those looking for truth, I highly recommend these two books: Nutrition and Physical Degeneration AND Pottenger’s Cats: A Study in Nutrition

The Choice Is Yours

Now, by no means am I telling you to gorge yourself on only animal foods.  In fact, I truly believe plants should make up a large part of your diet.  To give you example, between 70-90% plant food and 10-30% percent animal foods works for me.  However, these numbers are not set in stone and one should eat based on how their body feels.  The key is to strike balance; don’t become too much of one thing.  With that said, you should aim to eat with seasons as this will help your body adapt to the environment in which it lives.

If person chooses to do a raw vegan diet and  that diet is working for them, great!  However, to say that it’s the diet of man kind and the diet we should all be following is wrong.  Raw food veganism is a new age experiment.  It has never been seen before in the history of mankind.  We have no idea of the possible repercussions that the 2nd, 3rd and 4th generations will face by following this diet.

However, we do know that balanced diet of both plants and animals can produce healthy offspring time and time again.  I have presented you with facts and the many problems surrounding the raw food vegan diet.  My conscious is clear knowing I put the information out there.  If you want to be part of the new age experiment that’s your choice.  But please review all the facts before passing it off to others as the ideal diet for human society.

 

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