The Cold Scientific Truth behind Raw Diet?

Look, I don't know how to conduct scientific research. Well, I do know how to manage minor scientific experiments but that was only under supervision of my teachers and was done when I was in primary school and high school so I don't think that counts.

Scientific research is something completely different and a foreign idea to me so I really have no worthy opinion to throw in whenever someone conducts a research and shows it to the world. I can only take it on face value, meaning I'll just assume it's true but I'll use my own mind whether to take it or leave it. I cannot argue with anyone using any scientific evidence.

With that said, I don't understand how people who conduct the same scientific experiment/research/whatever get different opinion about Raw Diet? Okay, I actually get that.. But a completely different result?

An excerpt from THE COLD TRUTH ABOUT RAW DIETS by JOEL FUHRMAN, M.D.:

If you compare raw broccoli to steamed or frozen broccoli, about 25 percent of the vitamin C and about 20 percent of the selenium is lost during cooking, but the other 20 commonly-measured nutrients show only an insignificant change. Raw-food advocates are not accurate when they claim that 50 percent of nutrients are lost with steaming. A closer estimate would be 10 percent.

Hello, how could you calculate the same thing and get 2 completely different answers? Did you guys just make up the numbers or what? If that's not the case, then one or both of you must be performing really bad in your Mathematics class :(

It sucks not having a scientific mind, you just can't follow the rest of the arguments. It's when things like this happened, I have to remain neutral. I may not be able to be a leader but hell if I want to be a follower of any kind of cult either.

By the way this is one moronic question from one of the commenters:
The one question I still have about a raw food diet, which I used to believe in, is: why are we the only animals that cook our food? Other animals get all the nutrients they need from raw food. I await to be enlightened.

A Darwin believer no doubt that we evolve from monkeys... Then if that's the case, then why oh why are they still monkeys and we're human? Yay, another egg versus chicken argument, fun! Not.

But there is one thing that even non scientific people can appreciate and ponder, LIVE RESULT :) I love how some of the commenters throw in their own experiences with Raw Diet.

Solace - March 13, 2007 10:23 PM
I can only speak for myself. I followed diets set out by people like Dr. Weil for years. I tried following a mainly cooked Vegan diet for months at a time. Through all of this I still carried crippling neck pain and serious depression/pms that almost killed me. I have been on a 100% RAW food diet for 8 weeks now. I am now for the first time in 15 years off my anti-depressants and for the first time in 15 years and doing awesome. I have not had to take painkillers for 3 days now - THAT has never happened before!!! I believe what I have learned through RAW foodist and those who have been healed by them. I hope those of you who need more info will seek it. Thanks

Grandmama - September 18, 2007 11:40 PM
My experience with raw foods: I was in fairly good health but still suffered for several years from chronic daily hemorrhoids, rectal fissure, insomnia, cracked heels, general chilliness, poor concentration, was 30+ pounds overweight, and my hair was turning grey rapidly. I was eating a mostly organic whole food vegetarian diet for over thirty years (on which I overcame Lymes disease and migraine headaches), and applied ayurvedic and chinese medicine wisdom to my diet and lifestyle. I ate no junk food at all. It wasn't until I adopted a 99% (and later 100%) raw, organic diet that every one of the above-mentioned symptoms completely disappeared never to return (excepting a few grey hairs). It has been about 14 months now since I made the commitment (no cheating, no kidding!), and I feel better and more youthful than ever before in my nearly 49 years. I rarely ever eat anything cold from the fridge or freezer. My skin and hair are beautiful, my energy is great, my sleep is wonderful, I lost 33 pounds of excess fat, I no longer have hemorrhoids or fissures or even dry cracked heels, I am no longer chilly even in winter, and my concentration and focus is excellent. I am far more productive than ever. My two questions for the doctor or anyone else who knows: If a raw diet can cause nutritional deficiencies, how long will it take before the overall excellent benefits of my diet change disappear, and the deficiency symptoms begin to appear? If cooked food is essential to good health, please explain how the human and animal kingdoms managed to survive for countless generations? I believe that people have the right to choose what they wish to eat, and that negative judgement is not conducive to health for anyone. I sincerely wish for each and all of you the wonderful increase in health and happiness that I have achieved eating only raw foods. As my granddaughter said to me..."Grandma, you don't look like a grandma to me, all yucky and old and wrinkled, you look nice and young!"
Blessings of health and happiness to all!

Joanne - November 28, 2007 2:54 AM
I have Systemic Lupus and was given plaquenil to help me. It did, but for many years it was not 100% better until I went on a raw food diet for one year. My lupus symptoms eventually dissapeared entirely, and my blood tests showed as if I didn't have lupus at all. My doc wanted me to start phasing off my meds but I was too chicken to go off them completely. It is not easy being raw especially when I cook for my 2 kids and husband. But people, it works, just be reasonable with it and trust your body. I ate raw sushi for protein, which I felt I needed. Go organic when you do it; it makes all the difference.

Danny Anderson - March 20, 2008 2:11 PM
I have changed my diet to about 80% to 90% raw foods. I have been on it for only about a month, if that. I had bad psoriasis before this. after changing my diet it went away almost completely. Sometimes i eat a hot vegetable soup or some steemed veggies. I think you just have to go with what your body tells you. I have noticed that if I eat wheat products like bread it starts to come back. same thing with meat

Raj - January 16, 2009 8:32 AM
I am from India and i have cervical spondylosis. I had gout a few years back but was able to control it with some food changes but now i have cervical spondylosis.
The so called great modern medicine dosent have an answer. All they know is antiinflammtory tablets, pain killers and vitamin tablets. I have read about a yogi's diet i.e the diet of an indian saint. I have turned to raw food, can say 75% raw and i have cooked food only for dinner.
Now i can see the change. The pain has miraculosly stopped though not fully. I have realised that it is the inflammation i have to cure. for that i have to strenghten my immune system and make it recognize that it is not supposed to be attacking my neck. It may sount funny but it is true.
Now there are many here who claim that there is not much reserch done on benefits of raw food. But i believe in live examples and not the reserch studies done by those so called big drug companies. I have seen someone live for more than 100 years , healthy and perfect by eating raw food. All the person used to eat was green sprouts and fruits. His stomach almost touched his back but his body was in perfect shape and there was no fatigue. He lived for more than 100 years. He was the guru of my uncle and my uncle managed to survive about 70 years as he consumed cooked food.
Sorry for the long story , nut just wanted to share my experiences because there are many people in the world who are spending hell a lot of money on medicines which are of no use. Fasting and raw food diet can bring back life and cure diseases which are not cured by medicines.

Boris - January 17, 2009 2:55 PM
Lets face it: we know almost nothing about raw food diets yet, aside from the burgeoning body of personal experiences which are so accessable to all thanks to the internet. There is has been tragically little research, and many of assumptions that are made by both enthusiasts and critics have not actually been tested.
The evidence is overwhelming for a diet based almost exclusively on plant foods. Many people derive benefit from improving thier diet in this direction. Not all of them, as the doctor contributing above assumes, were eating utter rubbish beforehand. I should know, I'm a doctor and I was eating a virtually vegan wholefood diet (mainly due to reading Campbells "China Study") before I noticed that my Raw Food wife had significantly more energy and clarity in the evenings than I did. I followed in her footsteps and the result was effortless weight loss, and increased energy. From my point of view the most interesting change was radically increased recovery time from injury (at least 60% quicker), and almost no stiffness after exeptional exertion or new activities. My surgeries are full of people who just aren't healing injuries and inflammations of various kinds. Lack of a proper research base makes it impossible to share my experiences with the overwhelming majority of my patients. But as a 40+ year old doing TaeKwonDo twice weekly with my kids I'm finding life a good deal easier.
I think the dramatic experiences that many rawfoodists report deserve some proper research, as do the experiences of those who don't get along with it. This will take a good deal of time to undertake, publish, and understand. Gabriel Cousens is hoping to get funding for his work with diabetes, lets hope he gest some. But this will just be a small peice in the jigsaw. Research agendas are pretty hard to send in new directions so we may be waiting a long time. In the meantime, by all means lets share our experiences, hypotheses and what information there is, but lets not pretend we know more than we do.

Yep, it was the quality of life that matters not how long. Of course if you can live long and healthy, that would be even better :)

So anyway, I was reading these comments when my mom walked in. I explained to her a bit about my discovery. She was surprised to hear that Raw Food Diet is not limited to vegetable, fruits and nuts only. Reading back at some of the comments, it seems most people also assume the same thing too. Well, can't blame them. Raw Food Diet is similar to Vegetarian or Vegan Diet but there are some big differences between these diets.

While Vegan/Vegetarian only eat plants, plants' product like fruit, and nuts, and might occasionally eat dairy products and eggs, Raw Food Eaters can eat all that plus meats, fishes, fermented products like miso and whatever else I might have forgot to mention here. And secondly, Vegan/Vegetarian can eat the meal raw or cooked but Raw Food Dieters can only eat it raw (that's how it got its name by the way).

I still can't differentiate between Detox Diet and Raw Food Diet though :/