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Raw Food Veganism Is Not All It's Cracked Up To Be

by — Last updated: 2015-10-12 in Nutrition & Dieting

Table of Contents

Will going raw, and waving goodbye to those "toxic" cooked foods, cure you of cancer, diabetes, autism, and all kinds of other ailments? Or is the truth slightly more complex?

Raw Foodism And Pseudoscience

A raw food diet will almost certainly be low in fat and sodium, high in fiber, and result in a lower-calorie diet without even trying. You'll also see some nutritional benefits — fresh vegetables and fruits should, ideally, be part of everyone's diet, and if you were previously not eating quite as many as you really should, you may well feel great when you go raw. 

Going raw also, however, comes with some disavantages, disavantages that shouldn't be underestimated. 

As I found out recently, when a friend dragged me to an evening of smoothies and lectures about raw food veganism, Testimonial stories included, some raw foodists you'll encounter are what I'll call "true believers". They may, in fact, think that cooking food makes it toxic and that a raw food diet is the only healthy way to eat. They may believe eating raw from birth offers the greatest benefits, but that starting a raw food diet in adulthood still offers great protection from pretty much all ilnesses. They may believe raw food prevents or cures cancer. They may believe putting a child on a raw vegan diet cures them of vaccine-induced autism. (Yes, these are all claims made during that evening.) The raw food world, it turns out, isn't quite the place for science-loving skeptics. 

Besides these outrageous claims, there are other reasons raw foodism isn't as healthy as raw foodists like to believe as well:
  • It will actually be quite hard to ensure that you get all the nutrients you need as a raw food vegan. You definitely won't be deficient in vitamin C, but you may have a harder time with protein, calcium, vitamin D, sometimes iron and zinc, the omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA, and especially vitamin B12.
  • Though some nutrients are indeed lost during the cooking process (vitamin C, B vitamins), others, like beta-carotene and lycopene, are actually unlocked when you cook foods.
  • While cooking destroys enzymes, humans make their own. 
  • Cooking foods destroys many bacteria, lowering the risk of food poisoning.
Some raw food converts will argue that no other animal cooks its food, and that the way modern humans tend to eat simply isn't natural. Defining natural is, of course, really tough. It's natural for humans to die in childbirth without medical assistance in the case of complications, for instance. It's natural for people who are malnourished to suffer physical and cognitive consequences, particularly if they grew up lacking in nutrients. It's natural for people to form in-groups in which they feel superior about themselves, judging everyone who doesn't belong to their clique. It's natural, also, for humans to always move forward as they make new discoveries. Those who disagree at least have to admit that using power blenders is just as unnatural as cooking foods.
Ultimately, there is exactly no scientific evidence that eating only raw foods is healthier than eating a combination of raw and cooked food, and plenty of evidence that eating a diet devoid of vital nutrients leads to problems. Raw foods are healthy, sure, but it seems that getting the best of both worlds by eating both cooked and raw foods is the best path to take. 

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