The Raw Food Diet - How good is it for you, really?

Raw foods have a lot of things going for them. Often they taste fantastic, the truest source of the unique flavors created by nature. The most imaginative spicing doesn't equal the rich, nuanced flavor of a tree-ripe peach, or spring strawberry, or summer tomato. Assuming raw foods haven't been sitting around forever, they contribute the full portion of their nutritional gifts, since no nutrients are destroyed during processing. Most notably, raw foods are the best sources of the heat sensitive and/or water soluble B complex and vitamin C. They are also a good source of phytochemicals, such as lycopene, that may help prevent cancer. Raw foods contribute lots of fiber, which boasts a number of good points, among them aiding digestion, lowering cholesterol, regulating blood sugar levels, and promoting a feeling of satiety. Raw foods are attractive: their bright greens, yellows, and reds cheer up a plate. Their varied texture adds interest to foods. Chewing raw foods is good exercise for the teeth and gums, and the enzymes of some raw foods, especially apples, protect against cavity-causing plaque.

What raw foods are not, is a religion. Eating an exclusive diet of raw foods won't save the planet, nor will it guarantee superhuman strength and immortality.

You'd never guess these limitations reading the books and websites dedicated to raw food diets. They're chock-full of personal testimonials (I was bloated and depressed until I switched to raw food!), raw food potlucks, even a raw food restaurant in New York City. People get competitive about the percentage of raw food in their diets (I'm 85% raw!) and refer to cooked food as a "poison." Their arguments range from the reasonable but flawed to the utterly ludicrous.

Raw food diets are generally by definition vegan, including fruits, vegetables, and nuts. Grains and legumes are inedible raw, unless they are sprouted. While a few raw food enthusiasts promote eating raw meat, this poses many dangers. Even free-range meat can carry microorganisms such as salmonella, or parasites or worms. Thorough cooking destroys most of these. While some people thrive on a vegan diet, others do not. Vegan diets are very bulky and filling, and many people find it difficult to consume sufficient calories, especially children, adolescents, pregnant and nursing women, athletes, and the elderly. Some people suffer bloating and other digestive distress. Most importantly, vegan diets lack vitamin B12, a nutrient found only in animal foods. Vitamin B12 is essential for neurological and cardiac function, and a deficiency can cause irreparable damage before symptoms become obvious. It's possible to take a B12 supplement, but some raw foodists term even vitamin pills "unnatural."

While nuts are an excellent source of protein, vitamin E and unsaturated fatty acids, as well as some B vitamins and minerals, many people are allergic to them. Even if they have eaten them without harm before, the large quantities required by a raw food diet could trigger a reaction.

One of the most common arguments in favor of raw food is that the foods contain enzymes, which are "alive," have beneficial effects on the human body, and "digest" themselves in the stomach and intestine, thereby conserving a limited supply of human enzymes. Raw foodists link a "depletion" of human enzymes to aging and disease.

Sorry. Enzymes are indeed alive within the fruit or vegetable, but once they enter your digestive tract, they are dead. They are killed by the hydrochloric acid in our stomachs, our body heat, and our very own specially designed digestive enzymes, from the mouth to the colon. That may not sound as appealing as eating "alive" food, but it is the way of the world. Otherwise, your childhood fears would come true and that swallowed watermelon seed would sprout a watermelon in your stomach. Fruits and vegetables are incapable of "digesting" themselves. True, they degrade into compost when left uneaten, but the process of decomposition is different than the process of digestion and nutrient absorption.

We manufacture digestive enzymes daily, fueled by the nutrients we eat. True, we manufacture fewer enzymes as we get older, but that is part of an age-related cellular slowdown, not a depletion of some finite bodily store of enzymes.

T.C. Fry, a leading raw foods advocate (who, incidentally, died of B12 deficiency) states "a healthy body will not become diseased." A healthy person with a strong immune system is less likely to become diseased, and will recover from illness faster. But even the healthiest individual can be attacked by infectious disease, or environmental toxins, or degenerative diseases if there is an hereditary tendency.

There's a ton of other claims raw food advocates make that are blatantly false. They claim that "only humans suffer widespread sickness and ailment." In reality, animals suffer just as many sicknesses as humans. Many human illnesses, such as AIDS were originally contracted from animals. Animals suffer from human diseases such as influenza, as well as from diseases particular to their species, such as feline leukemia. Animals also have different digestive systems than we do. For instance, ruminants such as cows can digest cellulose, while we cannot. That is why they thrive on a diet of grasses. Dogs have a very high degree of hydrochloric acid in their stomachs, enabling them to eat raw meat, as well as the contents of our overturned garbage, without harm.

Raw foodists claim that "white blood cell levels triple after a meal." This is simply not true.

They state, correctly, that cooking destroys some vitamins and minerals. But they also claim that cooking destroys fifty percent of the protein in food, and that when protein coagulates (as in a scrambled eggs) it loses its nutritional value. In reality, absorbable protein survives cooking almost intact. In some cases, nutrients are absorbed more readily when cooked, due to the softening and disruption of the cell walls or membranes.

Raw food diets are often associated with other questionable nutritional practices such as lengthy fasts to "cleanse the system" and "gallbladder flushing," which involves, among other things, consumption of unfiltered apple juice, epsom salts, and a combination of lemon and olive oil.

And lastly, for anyone who loves eating, raw food diets are terribly limiting. I don't doubt that you can get very inventive with raw foods, and create many delicious dishes. But you have ruled out the entire human history of fine cuisine, from pasta puttanesca to chocolate cream pie.

So what do I suggest? I suggest incorporating some raw food into your diet every day. Indeed, many people, especially those living alone, on a limited budget, or too busy to cook from scratch, don't eat as many raw fruits and vegetables as they should. Slice a banana into your breakfast cereal, or make some fresh-squeezed citrus juice. Eat a big salad at lunch and dinner. Try some vegetables you normally eat cooked - like broccoli, cauliflower or snap peas - raw. Nibble on nuts. Substitute strawberries for cookies. Enjoy the wide and wonderful world of food.

Wendy Gordon is a writer and restaurant reviewer who lives in Portland, Oregon. She has a Masters Degree in Clinical Nutrition from the University of Chicago, and is on the Board of Directors of Food Front Grocery, a co-op in Portland.