Raw Food Diet

Many people believe that a raw food diet has many health benefits such as the promotion of weight loss and prevention of disease. Many advocates of the raw food diet argue that when food is cooked or is stored above a certain temperature then the food looses a great deal of its nutritional value due to enzymes in the food which would be destroyed by cooking aiding in the digestion of food. Due to social constraints most people are unable to maintain a one hundred percent raw food diet however anyone who consumes over sixty percent of their food raw can be considered to have a raw food diet.

People who eat a raw food diet will normally be vegetarian or vegan, often due to the fact that it is often unwise to consume raw meat and animal products to the risks posed from bacteria or parasites. However there are people who believe that meat and animal products can be part of a raw food diet although they do state that only grass fed free range animals should be consumed as they have a much lower risk of carrying harmful bacteria than their grain fed counterparts.

One major disadvantage of the raw food diet is that caution should be exercised when eating certain foods that may be potentially harmful is consumed raw. For example raw kidney beans are toxic due to the presence of a chemical known as phytohaemagglutinin which can be extremely harmful. So there are certain foods that should be avoided with a raw food diet.