[Leelu]

Hi, I was looking around the forums and I couldn't find anything about raw foods. I know its a big movement and I was wondering if anyone has tried it.

I'm currently on medifast and I want to try eating raw food for my free meals. If im successful on that, I want to switch over to all raw foods and no medifast. (It's not that I don't like medifast, it's just that it tastes awful!) lol.

Anyway help would be really appreciated as I really don't know how to start eating raw and how to balance nutrients out!

Thanks!

[Suzanne 3FC]

I considered it, but changed my mind. Dr. Weil, who we all know is for everything natural, believes there are more cons than pros to a raw food diet.

http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/QAA357082 for the full article, but here's a snippet:

However, I'm not a proponent of the raw foods diet. First of all, when you eat everything raw, you lose much of the best flavor, texture and appearance of food. More importantly, however, is the fact that many of the vitamins and minerals found in vegetables are less bioavailable when you eat these foods raw than when they're cooked. For example, you can get lycopene, the carotenoid pigment that protects against prostate cancer, only from cooked tomatoes, not from raw ones. The carotenoids in carrots are more bioavailable from cooked carrots than they are from raw ones.

Another disadvantage stems from the fact that many of the natural toxins in edible roots, seeds, stems and leaves are destroyed by cooking. Alfalfa sprouts contain canavanine, a natural toxin that can harm the immune system; button mushrooms contain natural carcinogens, and celery produces psoralens, compounds that sensitize the skin to the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation in sunlight. All of these are broken down by simple cooking. Although our bodies have natural defenses against these toxins, a raw food diet can add to the toxic load we're already dealing with.

[gaia2094]

I'm considering doing it during the summer when hot foods tend to make me not feel so great (Florida summers... yay)

[Leelu]

Thanks I keep trying to do medifast but my stomach gets so upset that I can barely keep the shakes down. I'll struggle through it!! ^^

[nelie]

Have you thought about something like Eat to Live?

[Leelu]

Eat to Live?

[nelie]

It is basically a vegan diet (although modifications available) that emphasize real whole foods for health.

http://www.amazon.com/Eat-Live-Revol...4071446&sr=8-1