Go raw diet...

Food fads and trends come and go. But one that seems to be increasing in popularity is already thousands of years old. And that’s the raw food diet, which is defined as being based on eating unprocessed, organic, whole, vegan foods, at least 75 percent of which should be uncooked. A variety of techniques are used to prepare these foods, including sprouting seeds, grains and beans; soaking nuts and dried fruits; and blending and juicing fruits and vegetables. Dehydration is also used, because it doesn’t require much heat.

The growing number of adherents to what is sometimes called a “living foods diet” – which include celebrity devotees like Demi Moore, Bryan Adams and Woody Harrelson – believe that eating uncooked food prolongs youth and fights disease. The raw diet tends to be dense with nutrients that are easily absorbed into your blood, and contains little or no saturated fat. It is low in sodium, high in potassium and fiber. These factors are important in helping to reduce the risk of certain diseases such as heart disease and some cancers.

More importantly, temperatures above about 116 degrees F (46.6 C) destroy food’s natural enzymes, which facilitate digestion and keep our gut and arteries clean, thus boosting health and energy. How that happens is a bit controversial, with some scientists claiming that digestion depends on enzymes that the body generates and not on food enzymes. But fiber and antioxidants – of which fruits and vegetables are prime sources – influence that process. And the less cooked the fruit or vegetable is, the more antioxidants and fiber it retains.

We do know that cooking food modifies the molecular structure of protein, making it less usable by our bodies. When proteins are subjected to high heat during cooking, enzyme-resistant linkages are formed between the amino acid chains. The body cannot separate these amino acids and the indigestible, coagulated protein molecules become a source of toxicity.

Swiss research from the 1930s suggests that, when cooked food is ingested, the immune system sends armies of white blood cells to the digestive tract to fight what it perceives to be a threat. Absorption of un- or partially-digested proteins into the bloodstream can cause allergic reactions and toxicity of the immune system. This immune reaction is called Leukocytosis. In simple terms, this process throws the body into shock, acting in self-defense by pumping out its own enzymes to digest the foreign substances that were ingested.

Scientists have continued to study cooked versus raw food diets. A Finnish study published in the journal Nutrition in 1992, for example, confirmed that raw vegan diets decrease toxic products in the colon. Results suggest that a raw food uncooked extreme vegan diet causes a decrease in bacterial enzymes and certain toxic products that have been implicated in colon cancer risk.