Debunking the raw food fraud/diet

[Phoney]

Unfortunately a lot of faddist diets are taken up by young people like fifteen year old girls who, like, say, like, like meat? eeewwww, like gross like. Like.

When you are young, say under 35, you can withstand stupid diets because you still have the reserves of fitness and repair - ability of the body. However once you get into your overthehump years stuff like raw foodism or can I even be politically incorrect, Atkins, can be positively life shortening.

Not that I disagree with you there, but checkout this couple:

http://www.smh.com.au/national/couple-run-365-marathons-in-a-year-20131230-302sf.html

64 & 68, raw food diet, they ran a marathon every single day last year! I'm not sure that their lives will end anytime soon.

 

[Bribie G]

I only eat food that has been grown in fields irrigated with a spray made from manure packed into cows horns and buried for a year, the spraying to happen at night on a full moon by a tractor with a certain set of crystals on the roof.

 

[Airgead]

Not that I disagree with you there, but checkout this couple:

http://www.smh.com.au/national/couple-run-365-marathons-in-a-year-20131230-302sf.html

64 & 68, raw food diet, they ran a marathon every single day last year! I'm not sure that their lives will end anytime soon.

Imagine how much fitter they would be if they ate properly.

 

[Liam_snorkel]

I only eat food that goes into my mouth.

 

[Airgead]

I only eat food that has been grown in fields irrigated with a spray made from manure packed into cows horns and buried for a year, the spraying to happen at night on a full moon by a tractor with a certain set of crystals on the roof.

And for those who don't know... that's exactly what you get when you but something with "biodynamic" on the label.

 

[verysupple]

My partner works for a naturopath who does a lot of research into raw food. Now, if there's one thing I've picked up from what she's told me it's that an entirely raw food diet isn't something any naturopath worth listening to would recommend. The most extreme program she uses is about 90 days long and requires very careful preparation before commencing and then requires very careful supervison by an expert during the program.

This all tells me that a raw food diet is not a good thing long term. It could be beneficial every now and again though.

I think the problem is this area of knowledge is not well understood by many of the people touting the benefits. As others have suggested, there probably is some good science in there if you dig deep enough, but there's a bit of Chinese whispers going on. The hipsters (and would have been hippies previously) pass on info they hear around the bong circle rather than seeking advice from someone who has actually done the research.

Just my 2c.

 

[Airgead]

. As others have suggested, there probably is some good science in there if you dig deep enough

Nope.

The more you dig into the science the more it looks like complete BS.

 

[technobabble66]

+1 verysupple.
The basic advice is eat a balanced diet. Ta dah!!
Some raw, some cooked, best quality ingredients you can comfortably afford. Paleo is a reasonable guide.
Too many people see diets as a new religion, rather than looking critically at the science/evidence/rationale behind it (if there is any).
Fwiw, there's some very sound reasoning behind the basic concept of raw food, but it's not enough to make it your entire dietary intake - eg: as some hv already mentioned, some nutrients (esp minerals, amino acids) are significantly more accessible from cooked foods, whereas some are destroyed (eg: most enzymes & vitamins). There's a vast array of enzymes/nutrients in the various foods we eat. So it's generally flawed approaching dietary advice too simplistically (eg: all food should be raw; or all food is ok to be cooked).
It's actually analogous to brewing in some way - sure you can make beer with a K&K, but you can do better by being mindful of greater details. Also, it's silly to put all your effort into one aspect & ignore the rest (eg: get the best malts, but ignore temp control). And finally, some people can't afford or hv space/time for 3v AG setup; though can still do well with other (lesser) options.

Oh, and a healthy diet is something you can eat all the time.

My 2c & professional opinion

 

[technobabble66]

Nope.

The more you dig into the science the more it looks like complete BS.

Definitely when treated as a religion.

But there's certain enzymes/trace-nutrients that can degrade pretty quickly as the temps start going over "normal" biological temps.
It's not the end of the world, but if you're gettin all sciency 'bout it...

It's possibly better to look at how much benefit are you getting/missing by doing any dietary change compared to the effort/cost(/taste) of it.

Another 2c

 

[Airgead]

Paleo is a reasonable guide.

Don't get me started on paleo...

 

[Airgead]

Definitely when treated as a religion.

But there's certain enzymes/trace-nutrients that can degrade pretty quickly as the temps start going over "normal" biological temps.
It's not the end of the world, but if you're gettin all sciency 'bout it...

It's possibly better to look at how much benefit are you getting/missing by doing any dietary change compared to the effort/cost(/taste) of it.

Another 2c

Agreed... there are some trace things that do degrade. I'm not saying that we should do like my grandmother did and boil the crap out of everything till its grey. Eat a salad occasionally. Fruit is nice.

But the whole premise of the raw food movement that cooking is somehow bad for you is fundamentally flawed and has absolutely no basis in fact.

Cheers
Dave

Edit - and on the enzyme thing... I was under the impression that any enzymes we eat get broken down by digestion (like other proteins) and we then use the parts to make our own enzymes. I'm not aware of any dietary requirement to obtain enzymes from an external source. So denatured or not really makes zip difference nutritionally (except that the amino acids might be more biologically available if it is already denatured).

 

[Silver]

Don't get me started on paleo...

OK, won't get you started but seeing how someone mentioned it, I have a mate at work who is pushing Paleo and now anti-gluten. I have always been a big believer in everything in moderation. Anyhow does paleo have any adverse effects on the average Joe?

 

[Airgead]

It seems to make people who follow it a lot stupider.

Or maybe I have the causation round the wrong way...

 

[RobW]

An enzyme is just a biological catalyst - it enhances a specific biochemical reaction.
Enzyme activity is affected by temperature, pressure, chemical environment (e.g., pH) etc.
I'm not aware enzymes have any specific nutritional value and in any case, whether you cook your food or not, what's going to happen to these enzymes when they hit the pH2 that's your stomach?

 

[Airgead]

Precisely.

 

[TimT]

Raw food is the latest in a long line of weird food fads, but it has an interesting link to beer making in that it embraces 'sprouted grain breads' - eg, the Sumerian bappir cakes that were made from sprouted barley grains and crumbled into hot water to get ale. We get an early recipe for a sprouted grain bread from Christ in the apocrypha, where he appears as a kind of dietary guru:

'How should we cook our daily bread without fire, Master?' asked some with great astonishment. 'Let the angels of God prepare your bread. Moisten your wheat, that the angel of water may enter it. Then set it in the air, that the angel of air may also embrace it. And leave it from morning to evening beneath the sun, that the angel of sunshine may descend upon it. And the blessing of the three angels will soon make the germ of life to sprout in your wheat. Then crush your grain, and make thin wafers, as did your forefathers when they departed out of Egypt, the house of bondage. Put them back again beneath the sun from its appearing, and when it is risen to its highest in the heavens, turn them over on the other side that they be embraced there also by the angel of sunshine, and leave them there until the sun be set.'

 

[Midnight Brew]

You cant be 100% paleo and be a home brewer. Recipe for disaster. Is there any proof that cave men drank alcohol? I cant find any.

Myself, I follow 80% paleo diet, 1 day a week where I eat what ever I want and in what ever amount I want, moderate amounts of ale and train/exercise 4-5 times a week. It works for me but not everyone.

I agree with the OP 100% raw is not what we were designed for. We were meant to eat meat, cook vegies, cook meat, we have fire so on so forth (although I dont think we were suppose to drink from cow utters, id be curious to have a time machine and see the first bloke who came up with that idea.). There are benefits of eating raw food but like all things it should be incorporated into a diet like everything else as already mentioned.

Balance is key but at the same time you need to enjoy your life and what you're eating. <Could that be any more contradictory?

 

[mje1980]

I don't agree with some of the new age diets but I think it's better that people are conscious of the effect of what they eat on their health, instead of just eating whatever they want, whenever, without any thought to the effect.

 

[technobabble66]

The vaaast majority of proteins, proteoglycans, glycoproteins, etc are destroyed by the acids in the stomach & (mainly) the enzymes in the small intestine. However, there is a small percentage of these various molecules that are presented to the gut wall and will be taken into the bloodstream relatively intact. Hence the various trace nutrients of the foods we eat, including enzymes, can have biologically active role in our body. These acitivities are diverse and are only recently being explored. One example would be the anti-inflammatory action of certain enzymes. It's not only enzymes - many potent anti-oxidants are fairly complex (smaller) biological molecules; and they have significant diverse effects on the human body. Look up curcumin.

It's possibly worth noting that the effects of small changes in temp on proteins can be reversible, though these changes rapidly become irreversible as the temps go up. Similarly for acids/bases, though many molecules/enzymes seem to tolerate pH changes a bit better and activity can be returned if the pH is returned to more ideal conditions. It's also all based on time of exposure.

FWIW, tree-hugging earth muffin fanatics **** me immensely.
But, just because some looney says somethings good for you, doesn't mean its not. You just look at the grain of truth, & ignore the bollocks.

Up to 6c

 

[technobabble66]

Is there any proof that cave men drank alcohol? I cant find any.

...although I dont think we were suppose to drink from cow utters, id be curious to have a time machine and see the first bloke who came up with that idea.

I think that's pretty solid evidence there was alcohol around at the time.