{"id":1497,"date":"2013-03-14T13:48:41","date_gmt":"2013-03-14T17:48:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hookedonraw.com\/?page_id=1497"},"modified":"2014-06-11T08:44:08","modified_gmt":"2014-06-11T12:44:08","slug":"raw-food-diet-gains-in-popularity","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/hookedonraw.com\/?page_id=1497","title":{"rendered":"Raw Food Diet Gains in Popularity"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\n\nWEBMD\nMSNBC Health\n12\/02\n\nRaw food diet gains in popularity<\/strong>
\nProponents say dietary regimen has nutritional advantages
\nBy Carol Sorgen<\/p>\n

Eighteen years ago, David Klein suffered from ulcerative colitis, a rare condition with painful inflammation of the colon, and his doctors wanted to remove his colon. Instead, Klein decided to take matters into his own hands and significantly upped his intake of raw, \u201cliving\u201d foods. He saw such a quick improvement in his symptoms that he became hooked. Now, the former engineer is a 100 percent \u201craw fooder,\u201d a nutrition educator, and the publisher\/editor of Living Nutrition Magazine.<\/p>\n

\u2018What you eat has much to do with how you feel.
\nAnd people just want to feel good.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2014 RALPH ROBERTS, Nutritionist<\/p>\n

NUTRITIONIST RALPH Roberts, MS, CHN, also became a raw fooder when his doctor suggested increasing his consumption of fruits and vegetables to help him manage his hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). Like Klein, Roberts noticed an almost immediate improvement in his symptoms, and now, four years later, is an enthusiastic supporter of a \u201cliving\u201d food diet.<\/p>\n

What does the term living food mean? Naturalist David Jubb, Ph.D., a behavior\/exercise physiologist in New York, who prefers the term LifeFOOD, explains that a raw, living food eating regimen is made up of fresh, raw fruits and vegetables, organic (whenever possible), in season, and ripe; sprouted seeds, nuts, and legumes; and some fermented foods that are properly combined for easy digestion.<\/p>\n

\u201cLifeFOOD is vegetarian and is food that can be found growing wild in nature,\u201d says Jubb. Asparagus, for example, can be found growing wild; corn, on the other hand, can\u2019t. Most starchy vegetables come under that latter heading as well \u2014 potatoes, turnips, and beets, for instance.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet starch go,\u201d says Jubb, explaining that as it breaks down, starch ferments in your body, which does you no good at all.<\/p>\n

Proponents of a raw, living food diet aren\u2019t \u201cweirdoes or hippies,\u201d says Roberts. In fact, raw food meals are showing up on restaurant menus nationwide, and the movement is spawning books, clubs, and its own restaurants.<\/p>\n

The reason for the increasing popularity of raw foods?<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat you eat has much to do with how you feel,\u201d says Roberts. \u201cAnd people just want to feel good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following a diet of raw, \u201cliving\u201d foods can be as complicated \u2014 or as simple \u2014 as you like. You can fill your kitchen with juicers, dehydrators, and raw food cookbooks, or you can do what you need with a cutting board, blender, sharp knife, and mixing bowl.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more you follow a raw food diet, the less likely you are to get involved in (needing) recipes,\u201d says Klein. \u201cWhat could be easier than just eating a banana for breakfast or putting some greens into a bowl?\u201d<\/p>\n

For his clients who aren\u2019t ready to give up on their traditional diet altogether, Ralph Roberts simply suggests that they try a modified plan for 21 days.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to deprive people of something they really want,\u201d he says. \u201cInstead, I suggest that they have their coffee, or ice cream, or sandwich … but after they\u2019ve had their five servings of fruits or vegetables. By that time, they often don\u2019t want anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nutritionists who aren\u2019t raw fooders themselves agree that such an eating plan has its advantages. Molly Kimball, RD, a nutritionist with a division of the Ochsner Clinic in New Orleans, says a raw food diet is \u201cnutrient dense,\u201d with a high content of minerals, vitamins, and enzymes. And because it emphasizes organically grown foods, says Kimball, it\u2019s virtually free of pesticides, chemicals, hormones, and antibiotics that are found in meats, poultry, and non-organic produce.<\/p>\n

There is also little or no saturated fat, no added refined sugars, low sodium levels, and high fiber content. \u201cAll the things that are recommended to decrease our risk of heart disease, cancer, and other illnesses,\u201d says Kimball.<\/p>\n

Kimball does have some reservations, however. For one, cooking does not destroy as many of the nutrients as raw fooders claim \u2014 \u201cI think they\u2019re being a bit extreme in that regard\u201d \u2014 and, in fact, enhances the benefits of certain foods. Cooking increases the availability of the beta carotene in carrots, for example, as well as releasing the lycopene in tomatoes (both beta carotene and lycopene have been shown to offer protective benefits against heart disease and cancer).<\/p>\n

A diet made up solely of raw foods may also leave you coming up short when it comes to calcium, omega-3 fatty acids (which are found in plentiful supply in fatty fish such as salmon and tuna and offer protection against heart disease and cancer, too), iron, and vitamin B-12 (which is found only in animal foods).<\/p>\n

\u201cRaw foods do have calcium, iron, and even some fatty acids \u2014 in walnuts and flaxseed, for example,\u201d says Kimball, \u201cbut not as much as you would find in other foods, and they\u2019re not always absorbed as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

This doesn\u2019t mean you shouldn\u2019t necessarily follow a raw foods diet, but you should plan your meals carefully and consider taking supplements, says Kimball.<\/p>\n

Following such a food plan can have other drawbacks as well. People with irritable bowel syndrome and diverticulitis may find a diet made up solely of raw foods a bit hard on their system, says Kimball. And people who have been told by their doctors that they have abnormally high potassium levels should boil their vegetables so that some of the potassium makes its way out of the veggies and into the water, says Wahida Karmally, MS, RD, a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. Karmally says that not all raw vegetables taste good, and if it\u2019s a matter of not eating vegetables at all, or cooking them, then by all means cook them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s also something to be said for the comfort of a hot meal,\u201d Kimball says. \u201cThe satisfaction, or satiety \u2014 that feeling of fullness \u2014 you get from a hot meal is important to some people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Breaking the cooked food habit can be a problem, says Roberts, as can the social aspect of following such a diet. \u201cIf you\u2019re married to someone \u2014 as I am \u2014 who doesn\u2019t eat this way, or if your friends don\u2019t understand you, it can be difficult.\u201d Roberts always offers to bring several of his favorite dishes when invite him to dinner.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy keeping a positive attitude and sharing what I\u2019ve learned \u2014 as well as some of my favorite foods,\u201d says Roberts, \u201cI\u2019m able to reach people and let them know that following this plan isn\u2019t really about the food at all … it\u2019s about becoming aware of how to help your body heal itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Carol Sorgen is a freelance medical writer.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 WebMD content is provided to MSNBC by the editorial staff of WebMD. The MSNBC editorial staff does not participate in the creation of WebMD content and is not responsible for WebMD content. Remember that editorial content is never a substitute for a visit to a health care professional.<\/p>\n

FAIR USE NOTICE<\/a><\/p>\n

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< WEBMD MSNBC Health 12\/02 Raw food diet gains in popularity Proponents say dietary regimen has nutritional advantages By Carol Sorgen Eighteen years ago, David Klein suffered from ulcerative colitis, a rare condition with painful inflammation of the colon, and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":444,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1497","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hookedonraw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hookedonraw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hookedonraw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hookedonraw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hookedonraw.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hookedonraw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1497\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hookedonraw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hookedonraw.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}