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I have just become aware of how little raw food I eat. Some berries, perhaps an apple and (rarely) a banana. Some sauekraut. And little bits of salad as garnish with first courses.

But almost everything else is cooked. I have a root veg soup cooking now in lamb stock (for lunch), and some beetroots roasting in the oven for later, with grilled pork steaks.

Is raw food beneficial, and should I be trying to eat more raw? Are there beneficial bacteria - or, as Sally Fallon mentions in Nourishing Traditions, helpful enzymes, which cooking kills? Or does cooking make minerals etc MORE available?

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First, it's likely our ancestors ate fresh/raw vegetables and fruits so it can't hurt. Second, if I have to give up grains and sweeteners I think I deserve celery and fruit. – Nance Oct 27 2011 at 22:23

12 Answers

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I eat 1/3 -3/4 of my foods raw. And that includes animal foods, which are the mainstay of my paleo diet. Weston Price found that the traditional cultures he visited (about 12 regions) all ate some of their animal foods raw. Also, I feel best having a good portion of my foods raw. Carpaccio of muscle or organ meat, sashimi, steak tartare, salads, some fruits and herbs are the main foods I eat raw. I consider fermented foods like pickled herring and kraut to be raw, and I include those in my repertoire as well.

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Cheetos are raw.

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I eat a raw pastured egg yolk or two a day, once or twice a week I eat some raw grassfed beef and liver, I occasionally have some raw cheese or cultured raw milk (like yogurt or kefir,) and I eat a Sissonesque " bigass" salad for lunch every day. Often the raw egg yolk goes on top of that.

I crave raw animal products like mad and I'm breastfeeding so I imagine there's something to that craving. Obviously raw is more bland so I don't think it's a food reward issue. I craved raw meat when I was a kid too which is kinda gross since my parents bought about half conventional half organic, but I'd sneak raw meat out of the fridge when I was a preteen (prior to my vegetarian stint in high school.) I doubt that strong of a craving at 10 years old wasn't biologically based, but I could be wrong. I'd love to see some data.

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I eat some raw celery daily and am trying to get back to salads. However I agree raw foods aren't the miracle people make them out to be. OTOH I'm pretty sure underground fitness/nutrition guru Anthony Bova puts an emphasis on raw. I ate about 50% raw in my 20s and liked it. Yet really once you get away from fruits there are few raw veggies you can really eat a lot of besides salad and celery. Bova believes raw fruit is really key.

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Thanks! I'll add in raw fruit. And I do like celery - but if I eat it after lunch I seem to be up peeing half the night... – andrew Oct 28 2011 at 7:11
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I eat a big salad a few times every week. I also make smoothies with frozen berries and baby spinach sometimes. Today I put a raw egg in a smoothie with pureed butternut squash, almond milk (unswtnd), coconut milk, vanilla extract, and pumpkin pie spices. It was delicious! I made a few raw soups this summer and really enjoyed the variety it lent to my diet.

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Raw cabbage. Raw onions. But the oysters get fried and the buttercup squash and finn potatoes get baked.

It's what's for dinner these cold days.

Advantage goes to cooking for sanitation. e coli and hepatitis are best eaten dead and denatured.

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I put baby spinach leaves and egg yolks in my morning smoothie. I guess that's about as raw as I get. Oh, and I used to love these raw nuts (rosemary garlic pistachios) from Whole Foods, but last week I couldn't find them. :-( Besides the occasional salad, that's pretty much it.

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To go beyond my comment to cliff. It has been shown that within the very same food different aspects are more bio-available raw than cooked and vice-versa. This allows us to get more nutritional variety from the same number of food sources just by altering the ways in which they are prepared.

How in the word is that a bad thing? I would recommend mixing the two. There is just no scientific or logical reason you wouldn't.

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I usually eat a large raw vegetable salad in the evening, veggies from the garden.

I will also eat steamed veggies. Or sauteed in an omelet.

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Traditional societies ate raw foods, so I make sure to include some in my diet. I eat virtually all my fruits raw, plus some of my veggies (usually in some kind of salad). I also eat raw fish (sashimi/sushi/ceviche), and rare beef.

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So, if traditional societies jump off a bridge... Oh, just kidding. I lurvs da sushi! – Dave S. Oct 27 2011 at 19:17
I'm having flashbacks to my teen years, lol. – Kewpie Oct 27 2011 at 20:21
bugs bunny, anyone? I love my raw carrots – gydle Dec 11 2011 at 20:44
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Enzymes are killed by your stomach acid. We have no biological need for raw food as far as we know.

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"as far as we know"....and since we don't know of any healthy peoples who are purported to eat only cooked food I would keep it 50/50, cause what we know pales in comparison of what we don't know. – JayJay Oct 27 2011 at 12:57
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I'm sure you have studied all the healthy people of the world jay.... – cliff Oct 27 2011 at 13:03
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This Jay agrees with the cautionary principle too, though 50-50 seems excessive and difficult to do. I try to ensure some raw food every day. As for enzymes, I read on a raw food blog that the denatured enzymes can become active again in the small intestine where the ph is higher. I nver looked into it and don't know if it's true or if it even matters. One thing often overlooked by raw foodist is that cooked protein places lower demands on the body's own enzymes, with the result that the net effect may be enzyme-sparing. Again, I've not verified these claims myself. – Jay Oct 27 2011 at 13:44
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both you guys live in fantasy land – cliff Oct 27 2011 at 13:55
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provide evidence that you'll be less healthy if you don't eat raw food – cliff Oct 27 2011 at 17:01
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I eat a raw beef mishmosh. I eat both raw and cooked veggies. Raw veggies for me more than likely come in the form of a salad.

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