Raw Food Diet: 6 Things to consider before adopting the trend

huibing

23 Jun 2017

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Not a one-size-fit-all diet
Pregnant ladies, children, people with a weakened immune system, the elderly, and people with chronic illnesses are advised against adopting a raw food diet. As you aren’t cooking the food, the risk of eating bacteria-contaminated food can be high, which is dangerous for any of the above. In fact, if you easily get food poisoning or suffer from conditions such as IBS, it is probably best to just skip this lifestyle too!
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Portion sizes
Anyone starting out with a raw diet might underestimate the amount of calories needed and the sheer amount of fruits and vegetables they would be consuming. No, one banana and a bowl of vegetables would not be enough to last you through the day. Kristina Carrillo-Bucaram, a leading voice in the raw food movement, advocates for a whole platter of fruits for lunch— with her taking 10 persimmons to begin with, and adding on caramel dates if she’s still feeling peckish.
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Vitamin deficiencies
In exchange for getting minerals and enzymes, you’re exchanging something too. When it comes to any vegetable-prominent diet, vitamin deficiency is one of the biggest concerns for many. Vitamin B12, for example, is present only in animal sources like meat, dairy and eggs. A lack of that will lead to increased fatigue and an increased risk of heart disease, which means you might have to up your intake of vitamin supplements or look for plant sources with B12, like nori seaweed. Other areas of concern are creatine, Vitamin D3 and sulfur deficiencies, which means you should visit a nutritionist before embarking on a full-scale raw vegan diet.
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High level of effort to maintain
No sugar-coating here but this is one of the harder diets to maintain. When dining out, it can be difficult to find places that serve only raw food, which means you might have to turn down dinner invitations a lot more often than you are used to. But, surrounding yourself with friends with similar diets could make this a lot easier too, so find groups in your neighbourhood who are raw vegans too, so dining no longer becomes a stress.
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It’s not all good food
It’s easy to assume that raw vegan food is automatically good. After all, if they’re all organic and natural food, it has to be good, right? Wrong. Dried fruit, for example, contains a large amount of sugar and should also be taken in moderation.
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Expensive
In most countries, vegetables can actually be an expensive type of food to purchase in bulk — and you’ll need a lot for this diet to fill you up and provide you with the necessary calories.

What’s the deal with the raw food diet? Here are some things to consider before adopting the trend.

For those who have jumped on the health food train, you’ve probably heard the phrase “raw food diet” thrown about quite easily. The raw food diet might sound scary to some — is it the kind of food our ancestors would have eaten prior to the invention of fire? We are here to disprove some of the myths and shed some light on this growing trend.

“Raw food” and “raw vegan”

Simply put, the raw food diet means all food consumed must not have gone through a heating process of above 46 degrees celsius. There are two prominent branches of the raw food diet: raw food and raw vegan. Raw food allows you to eat raw fish, dairy, meat and eggs (on the whole, a diet that is easier to maintain), but a full raw vegan diet avoids all animal produces.

All meals are either eaten raw, fermented, or put through a dehydrator at low heats. It may seem unorthodox, as we are usually taught food is safer to consume when cooked at a high temperature, but the raw food diet challenges that notion. Keeping food raw means its nutrients, minerals and natural enzymes are kept intact for your consumption. Not only that, the raw food diet might improve digestion (as the food already has its share of preexisting enzymes), improve heart and liver conditions, improve bowel movements, clear up your skin, and even help to prevent cancer. But, having a raw food diet isn’t just a nutritional change; it is essentially a lifestyle that will change many aspects of your life.

Sounds good? Scroll back up and check some points for you to consider if you’re thinking of adopting this lifestyle!

Lee Hui Bing

Photos: Getty Images

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