raw foodists?

[Salasm]

Ridding your diet of processed foods is hard enough (because they are easy,cheap, taste good, and are readily available) but to say not only can't you have these foods AND on top of it, have nothing cooked it extremely difficult and not very satisfying.

i have their latest raw cookbook. the recipe pictures look delicious. i will try out some of the recipes and give it a go for a few weeks before i can claim it is not satisfying. perhaps the satisfying feeling of eating cooked foods is a pavlovian response?

 

[Salasm]

I guess that is why I like sushi and sashimi!

as do i!

 

[njmac]

no disputing you im sure potatoes have lots of good nutrients... but if i had to choose eating 1 pound of potatoes (raw or uncooked) or 1 pound of broccoli, id choose the broccoli. both for taste and amount of nutrients/per pound.

Well not being a raw foodist, it's a good thing you don't have to choose

mmmm... sauteed potato-broccoli hash

 

[njmac]

i have their latest raw cookbook. the recipe pictures look delicious. i will try out some of the recipes and give it a go for a few weeks before i can claim it is not satisfying. perhaps the satisfying feeling of eating cooked foods is a pavlovian response?

Could be... but you WILL have to spend an extraordinary amount of time planning your meals, preparing your meals (unless you plan on only eating salad) carrying your meals, explaining to your hosts about why you won't share in their meal, seek out raw food restaurants only etc.

You may not be hungry after some time on the raw food diet and if it means that much to you and you're motivated for an extreme diet then I wish you luck!

I'm not against raw food diet, btw. It's just my personality that I don't tend to like extremes. Not extreme eating, politics, religion or sports

I am also a big believer in to each his own. Whatever works for you

 

[takao]

"a pound of raw broccoli" ... unless mixed with other vegetables that is my personal dinner-nightmare only beaten by pig heart with cow brain-broccoli side dish

 

[bartelby]

I like my meat as rare as possible.
Does that count?

 

[Salasm]

Could be... but you WILL have to spend an extraordinary amount of time planning your meals, preparing your meals (unless you plan on only eating salad)

the same argument can be made about cooking. cooking a 1 hour casserole takes more time than making a similar raw dish without cooking. somehow that argument doesnt hold.

i agree more time will be spent looking for raw food ingredients but its only because places that cater to raw foodists are far and few. perhaps if more places catered to raw foodists this wouldnt be a problem?

wild animals spend all their days foraging for food. are we so different? ok maybe we are not wild animals, but spending time searching out quality foods is not a bad pursuit.

 

[Salasm]

You may not be hungry after some time on the raw food diet and if it means that much to you and you're motivated for an extreme diet then I wish you luck!

why do you feel this is an extreme diet? perhaps it is a way back to nature?

 

[applebum]

wild animals spend all their days foraging for food. are we so different?

You mean like the wild lion that grabs the slow zebra, takes it down, and eats it raw - or the hyena that comes along after and cleans the bones of any remaining meat? Why is it that eating like an herbivore is "getting back to nature" while eating like a carnivore is simply not discussed?

 

[njmac]

the same argument can be made about cooking. cooking a 1 hour casserole takes more time than making a similar raw dish without cooking. somehow that argument doesnt hold.

Actually, that argument can and is used about cooking. Sadly, many people today don't want to take the time to cook and don't like cooking. It does take more time to cook a dinner than it does to stop at McDonalds or pop in a frozen dinner.

It's just that with the raw diet you are really forced into making every meal from scratch and as big of a proponent I am of people getting back into the kitchen to cook – its not realistic for many people. Again, try it yourself, you may prove me wrong and you may actually enjoy it

i agree more time will be spent looking for raw food ingredients but its only because places that cater to raw foodists are far and few. perhaps if more places catered to raw foodists this wouldnt be a problem?

Absolutely yes. If more places catered to raw foodists then that diet would be more main stream and more, easier options would be available. You never know how the trend of people's diets will go. Look at atkins... that diet came out of no where and took over the world! (now carbs are back, btw!)

... spending time searching out quality foods is not a bad pursuit.

You and I are in complete and total agreement here! It seems that as a society as a whole, we are interested only in cheap food, fast. I probably spend too much time searching out quality foods (I hear its easy to get great food in the San Francisco Bay area - I'm so jealous).

So really, in conclusion... I pretty much agree with you BUT it is not a diet that most people will enjoy. People like going over to family and friend's houses for a home cooked meal, most enjoy indulging - even if its once in a while, most people don't want to think that hard about every thing that they eat - even the healthiest of people.

Also, I don't think we will ever know what it is that we are suppose to eat. I think fad diets, government endorsed diets, historical diets, hospital endorsed diets, etc. will always be around and there will always be people to disagree with them.

The only way for you to know if its extreme, is for you to try it. Maybe you will find is really more relative to a vegetarian diet than I am finding.

People who don't eat meat or carbs or whatever probably have some difficulties in life with their diet but it probably doesn't interfere so much with day to day eating and living. People who, say, only eat pineapple or some such silly diet usually have an eating disorder, or are very gullible. This diet is certainly not such an extreme as only eating pineapple (or soup or whatever!) but it is an extreme because there are so many things that are taboo and there are so many rules of eating out of the main stream for health claims that may or may not be the answer.

I could be wrong though

 

[princealfie]

anyone here eat only uncooked foods?

there is a restaurant in ny i ate last night that serves only uncooked foods, busy like s**t.. called pure food and wine. the owners also wrote a cookbook, raw food real world. http://www.amazon.com/Raw-Food-Real-World-Recipes/dp/0060793554

no meat, diary and uncooked. premise is cooking food changes colors textures and precious enzimes burned off. eating raw foods keeps you closer to earth and connects you to the real thing.

cooked foods is considered unhealthy and unnecessary. only humans, pets and farm animals eat cooked food. every other living organism does not. what you think. load of crap or a true health movement.

and dont ****ing wasteland my threads. thanks,

Yes, I admit that I absolutely love steak tartar and sushi. Both rigged and raw. Yum.

 

[princealfie]

You mean like the wild lion that grabs the slow zebra, takes it down, and eats it raw - or the hyena that comes along after and cleans the bones of any remaining meat? Why is it that eating like an herbivore is "getting back to nature" while eating like a carnivore is simply not discussed?

Man, I wish that I could take down a hyena for a meal. That would be more nutritious than the soy-bean sawdust Big Macs I see at the Food Court.

 

[dragonwing]

I find it silly that people think the pH of the stomach will denature (kill) enzymes and beneficial bacteria. If this were true, you wouldn't have to worry about your food spoiling. You would be able to eat it anyway, right? Even if you don't have a science degree, a little common sense goes a long way.
As for a totally raw diet, there is evidence that cooking denatures some harmful components, like Oxalic acid. Oxalic acid reduces the body's ability to absorb calcium, and it is not recommended that you eat foods high in oxalic acid without cooking them. It can be toxic.
I really like the idea of eating well. I just don't think people should be so enthusiastic that they forget to examine all of the consequences.
Also, animals in the wild do suffer from diseases, and die. Humans, even with all our processed foods, have a much higher survival rate.

 

[ZiggyPastorius]

I certainly don't think cooked foods are unhealthy. And if you want to eat no meat/no cooked foods/no fish/all meat/whatever, it doesn't make any difference to me. My problem comes when raw foodists try to tell everyone else they're eating unhealthy, and everyone should be like them. Well, guess what, if that's how it was, we wouldn't have enough food. We need new scientific breakthroughs in cropping, genetic engineering, et cetera, as well as a wider array of foods than is available without cooking to actually be able to feed the world. As it stands right now, we still have only enough food to feed about 5,000,000,000 people (I just pulled that out of my ass, by the way, because I heard it somewhere, but the point is, we don't have enough to feed everyone in the world), and I don't see a couple million/billion people standing around willing to starve. When everyone has the option to go to the supermarket and get some raw food, then I'd love to hear all about why it's good for us. Until then, as Penn Jillette would say: "You need to just shut the...." Well, we won't go there

I like my meat as rare as possible.
Does that count?

Me, too I like my steaks bloody enough to save twelve dying infants (hypothetically, of course. I haven't actually gave any infants a blood transfusion with my excess cow blood).[/QUOTE]