Are Raw Food Diets Healthful, Nutritious Enough And Suitable For All?

When it comes to raw food diets, there are opposing schools of thought as to whether it’s a healthy diet, provides adequate nutrition, and is suitable for everyone.

This article, which I first wrote and published on another website in 2008, explores the sufficiency of raw food nutrition.

Discussion on Raw Food Nutrition

Minimal empirical evidence is available on the sufficiency and healthful value of sole raw food nutrition. Although many health benefits of eating raw food have been propagated, some people claim that it may not be suitable for children, pregnant women, nursing mothers as well as those with anemia or osteoporosis to go fully raw.

Thus, additional care is needed to plan and monitor the diets of those who are going fully or mainly raw. This is especially true for special groups of people, such as pregnant women or children.

Potential nutritional deficiencies

Others say that deficiencies in calcium, iron, protein and vitamin B12 may occur while on a fully raw diet.

I think it is true that a fully raw plant-based diet may be lacking in protein. To help deal with this, make sure that sufficient amounts of beans, legumes, nuts and seeds are consumed – these foods are high in protein.

I’ve come across material which states that one’s hair is a good indication of protein levels in the body. If the hair starts falling excessively, then it may be time to increase protein intake.

Absorption of nutrients

In addition, there is apparently evidence that raw food nutrition may not always be the best, with certain nutrients being better absorbed by the human body after cooking. Results of such studies had previously been published in the British Journal of Nutrition and the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry.

For example, for lycopene in tomatoes, I have come across two theories. The first is that lycopene is bound to certain proteins, and cooking helps to break these bonds and make the lycopene more bioavailable to the body.

Another theory is that cooking helps to break down the cellular walls of tomatoes, and more lycopene can then ‘leach out’ during digestive processes. These, to me, sound like perfectly possible and reasonable scenarios.

Another example is carotenoids, such as beta-carotene, found mainly in carrots and also green vegetables. They are supposed to be fat-soluble, and so are better absorbed by the body after being cooked in a little oil.

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