How to Avoid the Dangers of a Raw Food Diet

The raw food diet generally means a diet of strictly fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes – unprocessed and uncooked - but can include dairy, fish or meat. There are not only dangers of food poisoning with raw foods, but also, the strictly plant diets may be deficient of key nutrients and actually lower the level of antioxidants provided. The raw food diet can be associated with eating disorders.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Observe strict hygienic standards when you prepare your food. Also ensure that the food you purchase has been processed and packaged at facilities that observe strict hygienic standards. Food borne illness occurs not only from raw meat but also fruits and vegetables that may carry bacteria, mold or fungus. Food poisoning often results from contamination during the slaughter of meat and fruit and vegetable processing.

2. Supplement your diet to minimize the risk of a nutrient deficiency. The raw food diet is based on the fact that cooking destroys enzymes needed to digest food. However, it is argued that plant enzymes are for plants; they are not needed for human digestion and are rendered useless for digestion by acids in the stomach. Thus the danger of malnutrition, particularly lack of protein. Lack of protein on a long-term basis can result in fatigue and the inability to build muscle.

3. Increase your intake of antioxidants. Beneficial antioxidant levels are actually reduced by eating vegetables raw. Cooking by boiling or steaming actually increases the antioxidant levels of tomatoes, carrots, spinach, mushrooms, asparagus, cabbage, peppers and many other vegetables, because the heat breaks down the plants' thick cell walls and aids the body's uptake of nutrients that are bound to those cell walls.

4. Increase your intake of antioxidants. Beneficial antioxidant levels are actually reduced by eating vegetables raw. Cooking by boiling or steaming actually increases the antioxidant levels of tomatoes, carrots, spinach, mushrooms, asparagus, cabbage, peppers and many other vegetables, because the heat breaks down the plants' thick cell walls and aids the body's uptake of nutrients that are bound to those cell walls.

5. Be on guard for the risk of developing an eating disorder, and maintain a healthy mental attitude toward food. The basis of the raw food diet is purity, and that detoxification from processed (cooked or pasteurized) food will lead to an ideal of perfect health, which may become an obsession. There is an association between eating raw foods and a high incidence of eating disorders.

Resources

• More Health Information on a Raw Food Diet
• Even More Information on a Raw Food Diet
• Additional Health Reading on a Raw Food Diet