The Skinny on the Raw Food Diet
The last few decades mark an increasing interest in the correlation
between food enzymes and health. Researchers found an interesting association
between the body's enzyme pool and the aging process - which means, the older
one gets, the fewer enzymes the body will have and the more vulnerable to
disease one becomes. I have addressed this important topic in
The Warrior
Diet
book. I have covered the importance of ingesting live enzyme-densefoods (including naturally fermented foods) under the title Enzyme Loading.
Nonetheless, I am quite concerned with the emotional impact of this topic on
health consumers. Those who read articles, such as the one published recently
at
Weston A.
Price
may reach the conclusion that unless raw, sprouted or fermented, allfoods are not viable. If this is true, even raw nuts and seeds may not be good
enough in this respect. There is a growing crowd of people who currently follow
the so-called "raw food diet" based on the premise that eating raw
food only (including of course vegetables, fruits, legume sprouts, sprouted
grains, raw dairy and even raw meat and marine food) is the only way to grant
maximum nourishment. Since I've already addressed this topic in
The Warrior
Diet
book, let me just note here that the raw food diet misleads people tobelieve that all cooked foods are inferior to all raw foods. The truth is that
in many cases, such as with cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cabbage) and
nightshades (tomatoes, eggplants), the cooked versions of the above are more
digestible and by far more nutritive than the raw version. The active
phytonutrients in broccoli and tomatoes (indoles and lycopene, respectively)
can be released and absorbed hundreds of times more efficiently in the cooked
version.
As for enzymes, certainly enzyme loading from raw, sprouted or fermented
foods is highly beneficial but let's put things in proportion.
First, plant enzymes are not digestive enzymes. They work on a different
pH than the body's digestive enzymes and therefore cannot support digestion
directly.
Second, while some enzymes inhibitors may be harmful (premature sprouts
or uncooked legumes), other enzyme inhibitors can be highly beneficial, such as
some protease inhibitors (phytates) or aromatase inhibitors which have been
found to be potentially anti-cancerous. The notion that nuts and seeds must be
sprouted before ingestion is preposterous. Raw nuts and seeds are perfectly
fine to nourish the human body whether in a sprouted form or not. There are no
harmful inhibitors in mature nuts and seeds and any rancidity or inadequacy in
these foods can be instantly detected via smell or taste.
Third, eating raw meat may seem "Paleolithic and healthy" but
nowadays it can be detrimental. Besides hosting pathological bacterium, meat is
a host substrate for harmful viruses, most notable of which is the toxoplasma
virus that has shown to cause serious neuro damaging effects on animals and
potentially on humans. Eating raw meat today does not make sense, to say the
least.
Fourth, note that the article at Weston A. Price was written by two
ladies to promote the sales of their cooking book.
In conclusion, raw, sprouted and fermented foods are great but it
doesn't make sense to commit to eating these foods only. You can certainly
benefit from eating cooked foods as well with a big bonus of pleasing your
palate with a larger variety of meals.
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